From our perspective, the Earth is pretty darn big and for most people, there is a massive amount of land to explore. After all, you can travel for days at a time without every running into an ocean, and even when flying at high speeds, you can travel over land for long periods of time.

Of course, most people know that the Earth is covered by more oceans than land, but still, there is a lot of land, right? Well, it really depends on how you look at it.

The largest body of water on Earth is, by far, the Pacific Ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains just how big it is:

“With a surface area of more than 155 million square kilometers (60 million square miles), this ocean basin is larger than the landmass of all the continents combined. Additionally, it contains almost twice as much water as the world’s second largest body of water, the Atlantic Ocean.”

That is pretty impressive. When you consider that the Earth’s surface is mostly water, it is remarkable that the Pacific Ocean makes up such a large amount of that water.

What might be even more amazing is that if you were an alien civilization studying the universe and you got lucky enough to point your telescope at the Earth, you might assume that the Pacific Ocean is all there is. From certain positions in the sky, the entire planet appears to be covered by water.

From this view, the aliens would (unknowingly) be able to see Point Nemo, which is the most remote place on the planet. If you were to sail here on a boat, you would be 2689 kilometers (1671 miles) away from the nearest land.

Another fun fact about the Pacific Ocean is that it has its own antipodes. Antipodes are places that are in the exact opposite side of the planet. So, if you were able to tunnel straight down from your current location, your antipode would be where your tunnel would break through on the other side of the Earth.

If you started tunneling down through the Pacific Ocean is certain places, kept going all the way through the core of the Earth, and then popped out on the other side, you would still be in the Pacific Ocean.

So, to put it simply, the Pacific Ocean is mind bogglingly massive. With that in mind, you won’t want to try to swim across it.

Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium