The Simpsons animators have always been very secretive about the exact location of Springfield—other than the fact that it's somewhere in the United States. Creator Matt Groening, after all, chose "Springfield" for its prevalence as a city name. 

But now we've got a whole new conspiracy about Springfield's location that'll rival even the Homer coma theory. 

During a recent episode that featured a guest appearance from Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, Simpsons fan and astronomer Phil Plait noticed something he jokingly says chilled him to the bone: The animated Musk was staring out the window at a crescent moon—a backwards crescent moon.

FOX

"It’s backwards. The scene is clearly at dinner, early evening, so that’s the setting crescent new Moon," Plait points out in a story for Slate.com. "But in the Northern Hemisphere, the tips of a waxing crescent Moon point to the left, away from the Sun (that link describes how the phases of the Moon relate to the time of day and the Moon's position in the sky)."

Only conclusion? Spingfield isn't in the United States. Or even the Northern Hemisphere. Springfield, Plait quips, is actually in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Shock.

P.S. Nevermind all those episodes with direct references to the U.S., okay? It's more fun this way.

FOX

FOX

FOX