First Woman To Spacewalk – Now In The Deepest Ocean

In the Covid-19 world, some positive news came from the scientific realm as Kathryn Sullivan became the first woman to reach ‘The Challenger Deep’ – deepest ocean point. In doing so, she added another item to her ‘firsts’.

Crux of the Matter

First Times On 7 June 2020, Kathryn Sullivan became the first woman to reach the deepest point in the ocean, which lies in the Mariana Trench. She also holds the record of being the first woman to walk in space.

Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, now also has the title of "the first woman to the bottom of the ocean."https://t.co/4CD47B0X0T — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 9, 2020

Know Kathryn Sullivan Born in 1951, Sullivan joined NASA in 1978. On 11 October 1984, she became the first woman to walk in space. She has been a crew member in 3 space missions to date. Besides her aeronautical abilities, she also holds qualifications in several sectors, as witnessed in her position as the Chief Scientist of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"You will never forget the process of getting into space." Ahead of #InternationalWomensDay, @SkySarahJane sits down with former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space 👩‍🚀 Get the latest news in science and tech 👉 https://t.co/bT1ASJKSSA pic.twitter.com/2CgafetP8s — SkyNews (@SkyNews) March 6, 2020

In June 2020, she became the first woman to reach ‘The Challenger Deep’ point in Mariana Trench which is at 11,034 meters below sea level.

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Mariana Trench In Dismay ‘Trench’ can be defined as a depression in the ocean bed. Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench in the world, located 200 km from the Mariana Islands in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. It is also home to species like flatfish, snailfish, etc. While Sullivan’s expedition brought some good news, the condition of the trench has been deteriorating due to pollution for years. Researchers have found plastic bags in the trench, and bodies of some organisms contained C-14 emitted from nuclear bomb testings.

Curiopedia

1. The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Earth’s seabed hydrosphere (the oceans), with a depth of 10,902 to 10,929 m. The depression is named after the British Royal Navy survey ship HMS Challenger, whose expedition of 1872–1876 made the first recordings of its depth.

2. Deepsea Challenger (DCV 1) is a 7.3-metre deep-diving submersible designed to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep. On 26 March 2012, Canadian film director James Cameron piloted the craft to accomplish this goal in the second manned dive reaching the Challenger Deep.

3. On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to perform a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. The first American spacewalk was performed a few months later on June 3, 1965, by Ed White from the second crewed Gemini flight, Gemini IV, for 21 minutes.

Curated Coverage

1. USA Today – NASA astronaut from historic spacewalk becomes first woman to reach deepest point in ocean

2. Times Now – Kathryn Sullivan has gone where no woman has ever gone before – the lowest point on Earth

3. National Geographic – Plastic proliferates at the bottom of world’s deepest ocean trench

4. The Guardian – ‘Extraordinary’ levels of pollutants found in 10km deep Mariana trench

#MarianaTrench #OceanDiving