Shining light on the darkest depths

Will Sellers, of the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering department, helps guide the new deep-sea robotic vehicle Nereus during testing off the WHOI dock in April 2009. Nereus made an historic dive to the deepest part of the ocean — the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean — on May 31, 2009. Helping to light the ocean’s darkest depths are an array of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, attached to the vehicle’s hull that provide illumination for its camera system. Learn more about Nereus and the team of engineers who developed the vehicle in a series of interviews featured in Oceanus Magazine.

(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)