One Curious Thing

No. 001 WED 30 SEP 2026

No. 001 WED 30 SEP 2026

At the ocean’s most remote point, the nearest humans can be astronauts.

Point Nemo — 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, South Pacific

Point Nemo is the place in the ocean farthest from any land — about 2,688 kilometres from the nearest island in every direction. The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles (roughly 400 km) above Earth. So whenever it passes over, the people on board are far closer to that patch of sea than anyone standing on land.

Why it’s interesting

Fig. 001 Lines of equal distance from three coasts. The cross marks the point farthest from all of them.

Why it’s interesting

We usually measure remoteness along the ground. At Point Nemo, the shortest path to another person can point straight up.

The longer version

The point sits in the South Pacific, roughly equidistant from three specks of land: Ducie Island in the Pitcairn group to the north, Motu Nui off Easter Island to the northeast, and Maher Island off Antarctica to the south. It takes its name from the submarine captain in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Nothing marks it. It is a calculated location — the centre of the largest circle you can draw on the ocean without touching a coast. Its remoteness is horizontal; the space station’s is vertical, and the vertical one turns out to be much shorter.

Edition
No. 001
Date
Wednesday 30 September 2026
Subject
Point Nemo
Locality
48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, South Pacific
Period
Present day
Field
earth
Evidence
2 sources, 1 primary

See how we got here

Selected from 21 candidates

  1. 01 Ocean geography
  2. 02 Poles of inaccessibility
  3. 03 Point Nemo 2,688 km to the nearest land
  4. 04 Orbital altitude ISS ≈ 250 miles up
  5. 05 Nearest humans overhead
  6. → At the ocean’s most remote point, the nearest humans can be astronauts.

Sources

Nothing publishes without independent sources. How we verify →

  1. 1
    Where is Point Nemo?

    NOAA National Ocean Service · government Primary

    Location and the 2,688 km distance to the three nearest coasts.

    oceanservice.noaa.gov

  2. 2
    International Space Station

    NASA · government

    The station orbits about 250 miles above Earth.

    nasa.gov

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