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I for one, enjoy a periodic splash of solitude. A solo walk in the woods. A blissful morning of unaccompanied kayaking. An entire hour to myself, reading. But I don’t know if I could handle Point Nemo.
This spot is the most remote on Earth. Referred to more formally as the “oceanic pole of inaccessibility,” Point Nemo is not so much a point of land so much as a very pointed absence of it. It lies farther from land than any other point (48°52.6′S, 123°23.6′W, if you’re planning your own trip) on the planet. Even boat and plane traffic don’t tend to come anywhere near it. Not only is it lonely, there’s also the falling space junk you have to watch out for.
For decades, satellites and other decommissioned space debris has been burning up over Point Nemo, remnants splashing into the desolate depths. Since 1971, more than 260 spacecraft have crash landed at or near the spot, including several Russian space stations and resupply vehicles, Japanese and European Space Agency cargo ships, and dozens of satellites, according to a 2018 paper in the California Western International Law Journal. Although much of the material that makes up these crafts burns up as they pierce Earth’s atmosphere, more substantive components make it into the ocean at Point Nemo.
This is all by design. When satellites or other orbiting spacecraft have outlived their purpose or completed their missions, deorbiting them is a way to declutter the crowded band of sky known as low Earth orbit. And, to limit damage to humans and their infrastructure, it makes some sense to aim for the spot farthest from any of that stuff.
Read more: “Comets Are More Dangerous Than We Thought“
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Point Nemo is more than 1,600 miles from the nearest land, which includes an Antarctic island to the south, one of the extremely isolated Pitcairn Islands to the north, and one of the Easter Islands to the northeast. Even its name, “Nemo” after the Captain of the Nautilus in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, roughly translates to “no one” in Latin. Visitors to Point Nemo—there have been intrepid sailors and scientists who’ve ventured there—find themselves surrounded by a circle of desolate ocean that measures more than 8 million square miles and dives to depths of about 13,000 feet. It’s no casual paddle out there.
In fact, when the orbiting International Space Station flies directly above, the space travelers in residence there are almost always closer (about 250 miles away) to Point Nemo than the nearest Earth-bound human.
Speaking of the ISS, that’s the next planned addition to what some refer to as Earth’s “space graveyard.” And it will be the biggest. After it retires from duty in 2031, the ISS—all 925,000-plus pounds of it—will be sent on a collision course with Point Nemo. Almost certainly, some of the solid structure that makes up the ISS will plunge into the icy depths there. And marine debris is only part of the potential problem.
A 2023 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that 10 percent of the aerosol particles in the stratosphere contain “aluminum and other metals that originated from the ‘burn-up’ of satellites and rocket stages during reentry.” These contaminants would have originated from reentries above Point Nemo and other spots, but as more and more orbiting bodies are deorbited, those metals could induce critical changes to the stratospheric aerosol layer. An altered stratosphere could influence how radiation and sunlight penetrate Earth’s atmosphere, disrupting climate and weather patterns.
Logistics make it difficult to study Point Nemo, but scientists have noted a substantial lack of biological activity on the seafloor in the region. While there is a community of organisms living in the sediment in the South Pacific Gyre, a spinning current that encircles Point Nemo, it is notably low biomass and low in metabolic activity, according to a 2009 PNAS paper.
If Point Nemo continues to serve as Earth’s space junkyard, it might behoove humanity to make an effort to further study the effects of this dumping on its surrounding ecosystem, however depauperate it may be. The ocean is full of surprises, and Point Nemo could be hiding one yet. 
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Lead image: European Space Agency
