Officially known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, a particularly mysterious area of water in the South Pacific is known to oceanographers and astronauts alike as "Point Nemo." While many assume Point Nemo is an island, its coordinates will actually take you as far as you can possibly travel from dry land while still remaining on Earth.
The exact coordinates of Point Nemo were only discovered in the early '90s, though its general location has been known since the 1970s, and fictionalized versions of the area have appeared in literature as early as the late 19th century. Point Nemo is rumored - and in some cases proven - to be home to everything from space trash to possible sea monsters, and it's an area where fact is every bit as strange as fiction. Here, we'll break down what and where Point Nemo is, as well as the myths surrounding this creepy ocean spot.
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While many things about Point Nemo remain a mystery, we at least know where to find it: the middle of nowhere. The area's closest land masses are Ducie Island, Motu Nui, and Maher Island, which are already considered remote destinations.
Ducie and Motu Nui are parts of the Pitcairn and Easter Island chains, respectively, while Maher Island sits off the coast of Antarctica. Each of these land masses is at least 1,000 miles from Point Nemo, making it more or less inaccessible to human life.
Oddly enough, its distance from human civilization is what makes Point Nemo such a valuable part of our planet.
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Some basic math will reveal that there are sometimes astronauts closer to Point Nemo than any human on Earth. This is because the International Space Station orbits Earth at a distance of roughly 258 miles, while the inhabited landmass nearest Point Nemo is approximately 1,670 miles away.
Space agencies are familiar with the area and have even named it the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area. It has served as an unconventional form of storage for space agencies across the globe over the past 40 years, though no one from any space agency has ever actually been there.
Since the early 1970s, a number of space programs have used the area now known as Point Nemo to dispose of outdated spacecraft and equipment. These programs use a complicated and precise system to bring old satellites and ships out of orbit so they don't pose a danger to populated areas when they plummet towards Earth.
Point Nemo was selected as the safest place to land old spacecraft, since it's the farthest possible point from any human being. Spacecraft are pulled from orbit and begin a rapid descent once they reenter Earth's atmosphere. The equipment typically heats up to thousands of degrees before breaking apart.
Hundreds of satellites, ships, and even the former Russian space station have met their ends at Point Nemo, and they now sit at the bottom of the ocean.
The area now known as Point Nemo has been used by international space forces since the 1970s, but not until 1992 was modern technology able to trace its exact coordinates. Survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela is responsible for pinpointing Point Nemo as the literal center of the ocean.
Describing Point Nemo, Lukatela once said, "The location of three equilateral points is quite unique, and there are no other points on the Earth's surface that could conceivably replace any one of those."
Although coastal erosion and climate change could alter the location of Point Nemo in the distant future, the shift would only be a matter of meters.
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While modern technology and science have provided a solid picture of what Point Nemo might be like, no one really knows what's going on there, which allows certain imaginations to run wild. In 1997, five years after Point Nemo's official discovery, oceanographers recorded a strange sound in the area unlike anything they had ever heard.
The sound was affectionately nicknamed "the Bloop" and was louder than the call of the Blue Whale. The oceanographers were intrigued - and a little unnerved - by what exactly could have made this unprecedented noise, and a thorough investigation ensued.
While the idea of a modern-day sea monster - or some less-terrifying type of unknown aquatic life - is an exciting concept, the Bloop ended up being quite anticlimactic. After further research, oceanographers determined that the sound captured in 1997 was likely that of ice breaking and shifting near the southern area of Point Nemo.
The experts were even able to match up the ultra-low frequency of the Bloop to "icequakes" in other parts of the world, like Antarctica. The other known facts regarding Point Nemo's ecology also lean away from the idea of undiscovered, potentially scary marine life.
