Either way, the map doesn't have any boundary cuts. The new map, published Feb.15 to the arXiv database, consists of two pancake maps that can be viewed side-by-side or back-to-back. This led to the idea of a double-sided circular map, he said.

In a 2019 study posted to the arXiv database, which has yet to be peer reviewed, Gott considered 'envelope polyhedra,' which involved gluing together regular shapes, back-to-back.

Note the flat map on the wall in the background. Richard Buckminster Fuller holds his assembled polyhedral globe. For instance, Australia and Antarctica were too far apart on his creation. But while Fuller did a good job detailing the continents, he wasn't as exact with the oceans, which introduced errors. In 1943, the American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller drew outlines of regular shapes that made up a world map, and he wrote instructions for how his map could be folded into a polyhedral globe. The end result, the pancake map, borrowed ideas from previous research on polyhedra, or many-sided 3D shapes. 'We're proposing a radically different kind of map, and we beat Winkel Tripel on each and every one of the six errors.' To get around this boundary-splitting problem, the researchers approached mapmaking from a new perspective, with the hopes of designing a 'flat map with the least error possible,' Gott said. (Image credit: Photitos2016 via Getty Images) Notice how it distorts Antarctica and creates the illusion that Japan is very far away from California. The Winkel Tripel projection world map was first designed in 1921.

Flat earth map with sun and moon