Are We Trashing Earth’s Loneliest Spot?

I First, enjoy occasional bursts of solitude. Solo walk through the forest. A blissful morning of unaccompanied kayaking. A whole hour of reading for yourself. But I don't know if I can handle Point Nemo.

This place is the most remote on Earth. More formally called the “ocean pole of inaccessibility,” Point Nemo is not so much a point of land as a distinct absence of land. It is further inland than any other point on the planet (48°52.6′ S, 123°23.6′ W if you're planning your own trip). Even the traffic of boats and planes, as a rule, does not approach it. Not only is it lonely, it's also falling space debris you need to watch out.

For decades, satellites and other decommissioned space debris burned over Point Nemo, and their remains scattered into the desert depths. Since 1971, more than 260 spacecraft have crash-landed at or near the site, including several Russian space stations and supply vehicles, cargo ships from Japan and the European Space Agency, and dozens of satellites, according to a 2018 report. paper V California Journal of Western International Law. Although most of the material that makes up these ships burns up as they pass through Earth's atmosphere, more significant components end up in the ocean at Point Nemo.

This is all by design. When satellites or other orbiting spacecraft have outlived their purpose or completed their mission, deorbiting them is a method bring order to the crowded strip of sky known as low Earth orbit. And to limit damage to people and their infrastructure, it makes sense to aim for a location farthest away from it all.

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, including 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” is in honor of the captain of the Nautilus from the novel by Jules Verne. Twenty thousand leagues under the searoughly translated from Latin as “nobody”. Visitors to Cape Nemo (and intrepid sailors and scientists have gone there) find themselves surrounded by a ring of desert ocean covering more than 8 million square miles and some 13,000 feet deep. This is not a random paddle.

In fact, when the orbiting International Space Station flies directly overhead, space travelers at their place of residence they are almost always closer (about 250 miles) to Point Nemo than the person closest to Earth.

Speaking of the ISS, it's the next planned addition to what some call Earth's “space graveyard.” And it will be the biggest. Upon retirement in 2031, the ISS—all of its more than 925,000 pounds—will be put on a collision course with Point Nemo. It is almost certain that part of the robust structure that makes up the ISS will plunge into the icy depths there. And marine debris is just part of the potential problem.

2023 study V Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that 10 percent of aerosol particles in the stratosphere contain “aluminum and other metals resulting from the 'burning up' of satellites and rocket stages during atmospheric reentry.” These pollutants may have originated from re-entry over Point Nemo and other points, but as more and more orbital bodies leave orbit, these metals can cause critical changes in the stratospheric aerosol layer. An altered stratosphere can affect how radiation and sunlight enter the Earth's atmosphere, disrupting climate and weather patterns.

Logistics make studying Point Nemo difficult, but scientists note a significant lack of biological activity on the seafloor in this region. Although there is a community of organisms living in the sediments of the South Pacific Gyre, a rotating current surrounding Point Nemo, it has particularly low biomass and low metabolic activity. according to until 2009 PNAS paper.

If Point Nemo continues to serve as Earth's cosmic dumping ground, humanity may have to make efforts to further study the effects of this dumping on the surrounding ecosystem, however impoverished it may be. The ocean is full of surprises, and Point Nemo may yet be hiding one of them.

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Main image: European Space Agency.

• Bob Grant

  Published November 4, 2025

  Bob Grant is the magazine's deputy editor. Nautilus.