A flat map with the Mercator projection. (Image credit: BardoczPeter via Getty Images) "Some projections distort more than others," Edney said. "Mercator's projection is the classic example.

A map depicting a flat Earth surrounded by rings of ice walls from an online art forum is being taken by some social media users as evidence the planet is flat.

The new map is the latest example of years of research and critique by Gott and his colleagues on existing 2D maps of Earth. In 2007 Gott and Goldberg created a ranking system that gave every 2D ...