Why do we know more about space than the ocean floor?

Question

Isn't it kind of weird that we know more about space which is millions of miles away, than the ocean floor?

Answer 1

Your assertion is not supportable. True we don't know what's really going on in the Marianna's Trench, for example, but then we don't know much about what's going on with poor Pluto either. And to a point, 15 billion light years of space has to hold more unknowns than the few hundred thousand cubic miles of our oceans.

By the way, you totally underestimate the size of space when saying "millions of miles." One light year is 6 trillion miles or so. Thus, 15 billion light years, the radius of our known universe, is 90 billion trillion miles. That's 90 X 10^21 miles or 90,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles in radius; double that for the diameter.

Nope, I really think we know far less about the vastness of space than about our oceans.

Answer 2

Hello,
The deepest parts of the ocean we would have to take a submarine to explore. If your submarine were to spring a leak at the bottom of the ocean the pressure would be great enough to cut you in half. I think it is amazing that there are fish that can survive at these depths under pressure around 3,000 + pounds per square inch. The universe has just as many mysteries but we can explore the depths of space with magnificent equipment such as the Hubble Space Telescope. Most space is transparent so humans don't have to go anywhere to look out in to space. I hope this helps answer your question. Good luck!

Answer 3

We don't. It is one of those things that people always say without thinking about it, like humans only use 5% of their brain or whatever. It is not true.

We have visited thousands of places on the deep ocean floor and taken samples. There are some deep diving research submersibles that can and have gone to the deepest parts of the ocean. The only difference is we cannot see the deep ocean floor FROM THE SURFACE. But it has been mapped by sonar. Now we CAN see far out into space, but we cannot go there. We have some samples from the Moon, but nothing from Mars or another star or another galaxy.

So it depends on how you measure the amount of knowledge. Is it number of samples? Is it a map? Is it the number of known facts? Can you really define what is one fact which cannot be broken down into a collection of simpler facts? I do not think you can assign a number value to "knowledge" and then say we know 10 about space but only 5 about the ocean. It is like asking if Lincoln is a better person than Gandhi. You simply cannot make such comparisons.

So why do people always say this? Probably because space gets lots of press and people just have the feeling that since more amazing new facts get reported on TV about space than about the deep ocean that we must know more about space.

Answer 4

Space is far easier to see than the bottom of the ocean.

I can observe a great distance out into space from the comfort of my home. Observing the ocean floor requires special, expensive equipment that can withstand tremendous external pressures.

Answer 5

We can see through space easier (Spacecraft are amazingly flimsy and light too). Compare that to the heavy, gigantic bathyspheres needed to reach the depths of the oceans, where visibility is limited to a matter of metres. Until recently humanity had never seen a living Giant squid, we've known about them for decades. We'd just never seen one alive before.

Answer 6

i don't believe that we know more about space than the ocean, we know the ocean currents and most of the species that live in the ocean. we know the ocean is made of water.

what do we know about space? we know there are galaxies and star out there, we don't know if anything else lvies out there. we know gravity controls the movements of everything out there, we don't know what is actually causing all of this gravity (dark matter?). we know less about space than the ocean, guaranteed. but that could be because there is more to learn about space than there is about the ocean, msot of the fundamental mechanisms of the ocean are understood (currents tides etc) many things in space are not yet understood (how did the galaxies form, do black holes exist? etc)

Answer 7

If you consider that space is transparent, and can thus be studied accurately from millions of miles away, while the ocean is murky, and must be studied up close, it is not so weird.

Answer 8

They have there special barriers. The sky we have Sean for many generations but it doesn't mean we know more about. Much of the ocean is not visible and we will eventually learn more. Soon I will be 77 and it is hard for me to keep up with just my field.

Answer 9

Because the ocean is so deep in places the pressure of the water would crush the human body and any vessel that went down to try to explore the bottom.

Answer 10

i don't know how you got to this conclusion. If by sea floor you mean in the middle of the ocean then thereason why is that it is easier to go to space. With the pressure of the ocean it is nearly impossible to get there.