Scientist made worrying discovery when reaching the deepest point in the sea

An image captured from the bottom of the Mariana Trench went viral after a scientist made a chilling discovery on the sea floor.

Situated 35,000 ft (11,000 metres) below sea level is the Challenger Deep, which sits at the southern end of Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench and is believed to be the deepest point of the Earth's oceans.

To put that figure into context, a building would have to be the equivalent of between 28 Empire State Buildings in order to reach the ocean's surface.

Or 13 Burj Khalifas, 36 Eiffel Towers, and so on and so forth.

In-fact, you could even plonk Mount Everest at the bottom of Challenger Deep and it still wouldn't reach the surface.

After all, it didn't earn the name of Challenger Deep for no reason.

As of 2022, only 27 people have made the descent into Challenger Deep, a list which includes Titanic film director James Cameron.

Another person to make the descent is oceanographer Dr Dawn Wright, who successfully navigated to the ocean floor back in 2022 — only to discover that humans have been able to leave their mark on even the most remote places on the planet.

Taking to social media after expedition, Dr Wright shared a photo from the bottom of Challenger Deep and shared her shock after discovering that an empty beer bottle had managed to make it down there.

"What did we see upon 1st touching bottom, at 10,900+m depth w/in #ChallengerDeep? A BEER BOTTLE," she wrote on X.

"Further evidence that we MUST as humanity do BETTER by the ocean and for the health of habitats that we ourselves share & ultimately depend on!!! #ThereIsNoPlanetB #DeeperSeaDawn."

What did we see upon 1st touching bottom, at 10,900+m depth w/in #ChallengerDeep? A BEER BOTTLE! 😫 Further evidence that we MUST as humanity do BETTER by the ocean and for the health of habitats that we ourselves share & ultimately depend on!!! #ThereIsNoPlanetB #DeeperSeaDawn pic.twitter.com/cDs3LhpPwn

— Dr. Dawn Wright + @deepseadawn.bsky.social 🇺🇦 (@deepseadawn) July 26, 2022

Recalling her reaction upon seeing the beer bottle in an interview with Los Angeles Times, Wright explained how disheartening it was to see how human actions were having an impact on some of the most hard to reach places on the planet.

"It had travelled more than 6.7 miles to the darkest depths of the Pacific, label still intact," she explained.

"This discarded trash had managed to reach an unsullied part of our world before we actually did - a symbol of how deeply and irrevocably humans are affecting the natural world."

A beer bottle making its way down to the deepest point in the known ocean means that humans have now been able to leave litter at the highest and lowest points of Earth — with Mount Everest previously being called the 'world’s highest garbage dump' due to the amount of trash hikers leave up there.