Located between New Zealand and Chile, in the South Pacific Ocean lies the world’s loneliest place. Point Nemo, also known as the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility or South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area, has been identified as the spaceship graveyard for over 263 pieces of space debris, as per a study from the year 2019.
The exact coordinates for the most remote location on Earth at 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, were discovered for the first time by Canadian-Russian engineer Hrvoje Lukatela in the year 1992. The place, while being devoid of natural or human life, plays a unique role space activity since it has been the last resting place for several satellites and spaceships that were rendered non-functional. Point Nemo has been recognised as the place where space agencies from around the world target old satellites, rockets, and even space stations for controlled reentry and destruction.
Positioned 1,670 miles (2,688 kilometers) from the nearest land, Point Nemo is a spot surrounded by over 9 million square miles of open ocean. For context, the closest landmasses include the uninhabited Ducie Island to the north, Maher Island near Antarctica to the south, and Easter Island to the northeast, one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands.
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The remoteness of Point Nemo is almost unimaginable. At 39,000 feet above sea level, passengers flying over the area will witness nothing but an endless stretch of water. Below the waves, the ocean floor lies 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) beneath the surface—a vast, cold abyss. Temperatures in these waters average just 45 degrees Fahrenheit, further adding to the inhospitable conditions.
Incredibly, if you were floating at Point Nemo, the closest human beings to you wouldn’t be on land—they’d be orbiting in space aboard the International Space Station, 249 miles (400 kilometers) above your head.
The “Oceanic Desert” of the South Pacific Gyre
Point Nemo sits at the heart of the South Pacific Gyre, a massive rotating current that covers an area twice the size of North America. This unique current is largely devoid of biological life due to its relative stillness and lack of nutrient-rich waters, making it one of the most biologically barren regions on Earth. The center of the gyre receives minimal current or wind activity, which prevents nutrient-filled waters from entering the area to sustain even the smallest organisms.
As oceanographer Steven D’Hondt called Point Nemo “the deadest spot in the ocean.” Penetrating all the way from the surface waters down to the seafloor, there is no microbial life at all on that seabed below Point Nemo. What an enormous, uninhabitable desert of the ocean it is-there are probably fewer known and definitely less explored places on the planet than this one.
The Spaceship Graveyard: Point Nemo’s Unique Purpose
Due to the extreme seclusion of Point Nemo, it is statistically impossible for a piece of intergalactic space debris to collide with an individual or property. Already, more than 260 space vehicles have reached their final destination with a splash into the ocean off of Point Nemo. Most famously, the Russian space station MIR, which orbited Earth from 1986 to 2001, was de-orbitised and plotted for a controlled re-entry, scattering debris across the South Pacific.
When MIR re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, only about 20-25 tons of the original 143-ton structure survived reentry, with the remnants sinking to the ocean floor around Point Nemo. The violent process of reentry typically reduces spacecraft to smaller fragments, so large pieces of debris are rare. However, pieces of space-grade metal and other materials can still be found scattered across the seabed around Point Nemo.
The Strangeness of Isolation and Emptiness
The absolute desolation of Point Nemo is no longer identified as just a geographical phenomenon; it also taps deep into the minds of the humans and their curiosity surrounding a concept that might be difficult to fathom. The vast open space of the Pacific Ocean around Point Nemo tends to add to the eeriness of the concept of sheer isolation. We, humans, have a natural tendency to fill emptiness with sound, activity, or objects, but in the case of Point Nemo, nothing can be possible since all there is, is miles and miles of ocean.
Perhaps this intriguing emptiness and a stark contrast to the normal life that we are so used to, is what made Point Nemo an appealing concept for fictional projects. Famed horror writer H.P. Lovecraft set his iconic monster Cthulhu’s lair in this remote location. Similarly, the virtual band Gorillaz cited Point Nemo as their home and studio, emphasizing the allure of such isolation in the human imagination. The combination of its biological desolation and its role as a graveyard for spacecraft makes it one of the most intriguing yet unreachable places on Earth.
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