The Mysterious Planet

There is a planet very close to us that is still mysterious to us, a planet which has areas so hostile that missions to those areas have resulted in some of the most horrific disasters humans have ever witnessed. Despite mapping the entire surface of Mars with a resolution of just 200 meters per pixel, most of this mysterious planet has only been mapped at a resolution of 1.5 kilometers per planet is Earth. Despite centuries of exploration and research by billions of people, we still know very little about our own planet. In fact, one of the most mysterious things about Earth is one of the most abundant. The ocean is huge. And by huge, I mean huge. Over 80% of the ocean is completely unexplored by humans. To put that into perspective, if that 80% were the land, every country except Russia and China would be completely unexplored, even the entirety of North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and even Africa. But why is water so hostile? Isn't it required for life? Water is great, until you have too much. And while there isn't too much water on Earth, there can certainly be too much water above you. This makes it incredibly difficult to explore the ocean. You see, while you can just walk outside and explore the land, you can't just go jump in the ocean and swim around. Sure, you can swim around near the surface, but if you want to go any deeper than a few meters, you're going to need something to breathe. Because, fun fact, you can't really breathe water. But even with some sort of breathing apparatus to help you breathe, you still can't go deeper than a few dozen meters. Fortunately, submarines, or rather submersibles, were specifically designed to be submerged in water, making them a great tool for exploring the ocean. But, there's a problem. Actually, there's far more than one. Submersibles are incredibly… not good for exploring the ocean. They require a significant amount of knowledge and skill to operate and maintain. So, you're probably not going to be building one yourself. Not only are they extremely expensive themselves, they often require an entire ship for deployment as well. And even if you can get past all the first obstacles, most submersibles can only go to a few hundred or maybe a couple thousand meters, which leaves nearly 70% of the ocean beyond reach. But, there's an even bigger problem. Most submersibles designed for research and exploration can only travel a mere 3 knots, which, to be clear, is about the average walking pace. This isn't a huge issue, since only being able to see a few meters in front of you, you'll probably not want to go any faster. Except, with such a slow speed and low visibility, even if you had a fleet of a thousand submarines, it would take a year just to glance over everything. Well, to glance over the floor of the ocean, not even counting all the space between the surface and the ocean floor. To properly study everything would take far longer. Not to mention the troublesome fact that only a few dozen exploration submersibles have even been built, and many are no longer in service. Granted, there are a lot of robotic underwater vehicles, but most of them are used for industrial purposes, not exploration, and many designed for exploration still can't go much deeper than a human. To put into perspective just how unexplored the ocean is, more people have been to space than have visited the Titanic wreck site, and even fewer have been to the deepest part of the ocean. We know so little about our own ocean that around 2,000 new marine species are discovered every year, or more than 5 every single day. But, despite how much we still don't know about our own planet, there are still some incredible things which we do know. The ocean is home to the longest mountain range on Earth, the Ocean Ridge, which has a total length of 80,000 kilometers, about 9 times longer than the Andes. The ocean is also home to the largest canyon, the Mariana Trench, which is about 70 times larger than the Grand Canyon. The ocean is home to Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain from base to peak, being about 5% taller than Mount Everest's height above sea level. The ocean is home to about 80% of Earth's volcanic eruptions. And as far as animals are concerned, the ocean is home to the largest and heaviest animal, the most intelligent animal apart from humans, the largest invertebrate and animal with the largest eyes, which we currently have no confirmed videos or photos of, and tons of other animals which are amazing. There are over 240,000 known marine species, which is more than 6 times the number of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined, not to mention the possible 2 million others which have yet to be discovered. So, I think it's safe to say that the ocean is home to some of the most diverse and strangely designed creatures on Earth. Just a few of these being the barrel-eye fish, which has a literal transparent head. Talk about, I can see right through you. The oarfish, which looks like some sort of metallic robot and is the longest bony fish. This is not the creation of some ancient civilization, it's the creation of the white-spotted pufferfish. The Japanese spider crab, which is enough to give me nightmares. The giant isopod, which… The black dragonfish, which is… uh… uh… This thing, which looks like some sort of deep-sea lizard fish something. Oh, wait, that's what it's called. Well, minus the something part. This thing, which also seems to struggle eating spaghetti. Or, wait, that's not spaghetti. This guy, who somehow has RGB lighting on himself, and thousands of other insane looking creatures, which unfortunately just didn't make the list, mainly because there are thousands. I think it goes without saying, but the mere fact that only 20% or less of the ocean has been explored, and most of this being the deep ocean, there is no telling what amazing creatures, ancient artifacts, geological features, and other stuff is down there. I mean, the black dragonfish wasn't discovered until 1906, and the barreleyefish wasn't discovered until 1939, with many other odd-looking marine creatures discovered just within the past couple decades. As fascinating as space is, there is an arguably more diverse and surprising world far closer to us. Although it feels like anything I look at in the natural world just keeps getting more amazing the more I read, or even discover on my own. As impressive as some of the creations of humans are, I always seem to find that it completely fades into nothingness when compared to the creations that came far before them. Even as niche and unnatural as RGB lighting, nature had it first.