NASA eyes the ocean: How the deep sea could unlock outer space

It should be a lifeless wasteland. Temperatures are barely above freezing, miles of water apply crushing pressure, and no sunlight reaches there. But the deepest parts of the ocean are actually rife with outlandish lifeforms.

Seven-foot-long tube worms, ghostly white snailfish, and massive crustaceans all make their homes in the forbidding depths. Single-celled organisms flourish in the unilluminated sediments. And some creatures even make their own light through bioluminescence – like the vampire squid, which ejects a sticky cloud of light-up mucus instead of ink when it’s disturbed, or the anglerfish, with a streetlamp-like lure emerging from its head. 

Although the deep sea makes up about 90% of our vast oceans, it remains largely unexplored. That’s for good reason. For centuries, scientists assumed that life at such depths was impossible – and checking wasn’t a simple task. But the advent of remotely operated submersibles in the 1960s opened up deep-sea exploration. 

An alien world of life has emerged as explorers have plumbed the pitch-black depths with ever-improving technologies. These

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