What is Point Nemo, and are astronauts really the nearest people?

Point Nemo is a theoretical point in the South Pacific Ocean that is farther from any land than anywhere else in the ocean. Its formal name is the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. The claim about astronauts is true in a limited sense: when the International Space Station is overhead, its crew can be closer than any person on the ground or at sea. The ISS is not there all the time, so the word 'often' overstates it somewhat. [1] [2] [3]

NOAA's National Ocean Service gives the coordinates as 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, about 2,688 kilometres (1,670 miles) from the nearest land. Three pieces of land mark the distance: Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands to the north, Motu Nui off Easter Island to the northeast, and Maher Island off Antarctica to the south. [1] [4]

The point was identified in 1992 by the Croatian-Canadian survey engineer Hrvoje Lukatela, who used a geospatial computer program. Snopes describes the logic as finding the spot equidistant from three coastlines. Nothing marks the place; there is no island or buoy. The name refers to Captain Nemo in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and 'nemo' means 'no one' in Latin. [2] [3] [4]

The ISS orbits at an altitude of roughly 400 kilometres (about 250 miles). That is far less than the 2,688 kilometres to the nearest land, so a crew passing directly above would be closer than anyone else. Guinness World Records, Sky at Night Magazine, The Atlantic and the Vendée Globe organisers all repeat the claim in some form. The Atlantic says the nearest humans will 'likely' be the astronauts. [2] [4] [5] [6]

Guinness and Sky at Night both attach a condition: the station has to be passing overhead at the time. Snopes adds that the fact is less special than it sounds. It would hold for any spot under the station's path that has about 258 miles of uninhabited surroundings, which is a much lower bar than the 1,670-mile gap that defines Point Nemo. The astronaut fact is therefore true, but it does not say much about how remote Point Nemo is. [3] [2] [4]

Sources give slightly different figures for the same things. The ISS altitude appears as about 400 km, 250 miles or a maximum of 416 km. The coordinates are written to different precision, for example 48°52.6′S in NOAA's version and 48°52.5291′S in The Atlantic's. These are differences in rounding, not disagreements about where the point is. [3] [1] [5]