The idea of oceans on other celestial bodies orbiting our sun was once very much a thing of mystery, and a big deal in the case of Mars, but we have since discovered numerous surprising bodies of water on dwarf planets and planetary moons.

Water, particularly in liquid form, is critical to life as we know it, making such discoveries by probes and other robotic explorers all the more important to humanity. A NASA chief scientist was recently so bold as to claim the following at a conference: “I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years.”

Nor are extreme conditions necessarily life-prohibitive: “life, at least the simplest forms, may survive in more environments than once believed. Indeed, even on Earth, life is ubiquitous, from scalding volcanic vents to frozen wastes. And we may not, as it turns out, need to travel light years to find extraterrestrial oceans or observe our first alien life forms. The proverbial backyard may suffice.” Even at great distances from our planet, on cold spheres like Europa, liquid water can be found thanks to heat energy and friction. Whether we will find more than building blocks and elementary life within (or beyond) our star is hard to say, but news of known extraterrestrial life may indeed not be too far away.

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The Ocean Cleanup Project takes aim at the most dire accumulations of trash in the world’s waters: the huge floating ‘garbage islands’ where millions of pieces (and pounds) of non-biodegradable waste gather and swirl.

Unlike more expensive options, like actively dragging nets from ships, this low-cost solution would place floating structures and associated net systems at key places where garbage collects, and focus on the top few feet of water where most of it is found (and avoiding the entanglement of deeper sea life).

Developed by 20-year-old engineering student Boyan Slat, this solution is refreshingly pragmatic – rather than aim for the impossible (full cleanup would cost billions of dollars and take thousands of years), he has set his sights on making the most impact possible with a reasonable budget.

“The Ocean Cleanup estimates the cost of removing one kilogram of plastic at €4.53. This is 33 times cheaper than conventional ocean cleanup methods, while also being an estimated 7,900 times faster.”

Plastic finding its way into the realm of these arrays, each spanning tens of miles, would be pulled and sorted using the ocean’s own natural movements, then collected and removed in bulk by larger ships.

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No, it’s not color correction. And don’t worry, you aren’t hallucinating. That’s pure mother nature at work in these bio-luminescent phytoplankton. Awash on a beach in the Maldives, they’re a literal sea of stars.

Taiwanese photographer Will Ho came upon the millions-strong wash of tiny wonders while vacationing on the islands. His pictures not only capture a rare natural event but do so in a manner that piques the imagination.

Scientists have known what makes the phytoplankton tick for some time. Under further scrutiny, Ho made the same discovery. The little guys react to stress, as evident in the photographs where footprints are clearly marked among the blue gel-like beach.

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The phenomenon of black holes in space was only theoretical until the late 1950s and early 1960s, when scientists began to apply the theory of relativity to these mathematical oddities. Through decades of research and calculations, scientists have now more or less accepted the existence of black holes as truth. They never expected to find black holes right here on Earth, however.

That all changed when scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Miami discovered what could reasonably be called black holes in the middle of the ocean. These water-bound “black holes” are mathematically equivalent to black holes in space. They exhibit many of the same characteristics of space black holes: nothing that gets too close to them can escape, including water. These Earthly “black holes” – more or less giant rotating eddies – can span up to 90 miles in diameter and have been observed drifting around the ocean for up to a year.

Far from the rather scary prospect of black holes in space, the ocean-bound massive eddies help to distribute warm and salty water and microorganisms like plankton around the ocean. They also pick up pollutants like oil and plastics. Since the eddies do not lose a single drop of water on their travels, they take everything that they pick up with them until they dissipate in a new location. Thanks to their unique characteristics, the black holes of the ocean can help scientists and mathematicians learn more about the black holes of space and even pollution distribution channels in Earth’s oceans.

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The shallower part of the ocean, before it drops into the deep, often produces turbulent tidal currents. Ship wrecks are not uncommon. Exploring the ruins provides vital information, yet previous subaquatic vehicles have failed to do so.

Scientists and engineers from the Korean Institute of Ocean Science searched for inspiration in an unlikely subphylum: crustaceans. The team created Crabster to fight the mighty waves. Weighing in at about as much as a smart car (about the same size too), it will explore wrecked ships formerly unreachable, as tidal currents crash in at 1.5m/s.

Like real crabs, the Crabster has larger front claws, which will allow it to pick up and store objects in a compartment located on the front of the robot. It can stay below the surface for up to 24 hours, powered by an attached chord that they hope eventually won’t be necessary. The researchers hope it will eventually explore ancient deep-sea wreckage.

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