Ecuador is considered the country closest to space, despite the fact that the highest mountain in the world, Everest, is located in Nepal. This conclusion is explained not by the absolute height of the mountains, but by the shape of our planet and its rotation.
The Kármán line, located at an altitude of approximately 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface, is considered the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and space. However, the Earth is not a perfect sphere: due to its rotation, it is flattened at the poles and has a noticeable "bulge" around the equator. As a result, points located closer to the equator are farther from the center of the Earth than points at the poles.
This is why the Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador is considered the farthest point from the center of the Earth on the planet's surface. Its height above sea level is 6,268 meters - significantly less than Everest's 8,848 meters. However, Chimborazo is located almost on the equator, just one degree south of latitude, which gives it the "advantage."
Taking into account the equatorial bulge of the Earth, the summit of Chimborazo is approximately 2.1 kilometers farther from the center of the planet than the summit of Everest. This means that technically, this is where a person can be closest to space without leaving the Earth's surface.
Thus, from a scientific perspective, the answer to the question of which country is closest to space is Ecuador.
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