Mount Chimborazo is technically closer to the stars than Everest
While Mount Everest reaches the highest altitude above sea level, the summit of Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo sits significantly closer to outer space due to the unique shape of our planet.
Earth is not a perfect sphere but rather an oblate spheroid that bulges at the center. Because Mount Chimborazo sits almost directly on the equator, it benefits from this planetary thickness. This puts its peak about 7,000 feet further from the Earth's core than the top of Mount Everest.
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