Our newest long film · 10 minutes
How deep is the ocean? How will the Sun die?
QuirkScience is an animated science channel. It answers questions like these in films: Shorts in about a minute, and long films when a story needs room.
A new video every day at 6 PM Central on YouTube
Meet the cast
The characters on this page are drawn live by the same code that animates the films. Tap one to see its move.
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The Rocket
Season 1's lead. Cocky, and sure it can take us anywhere.
Seen in How Do Rockets Get to Space?
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The Sun
Star of our most watched Short. One day it swells into a red giant and eats the planets closest to it.
Seen in How Will the Sun Die?
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Gravity
The big jelly that holds everything down, rockets included.
Seen in How Do Rockets Get to Space?
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The Moon
Twelve people have walked on it, and it brings that up a lot.
Seen in Has Anyone Been to the Bottom of the Mariana Trench?
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Pressure
Season 2's champ. The deeper you go, the harder it squeezes.
Seen in What Happens to Your Body at the Bottom of the Ocean?
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The Snailfish
Season 2's hero. Soft jelly with no air inside, so Pressure can't crush her.
Seen in How Deep Is the Ocean, Really?
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Mount Everest
Calls itself the top of the world. The Mariana Trench goes deeper than Everest is tall.
Seen in Mount Everest vs Mariana Trench
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The Bathysphere
A steel ball that went down on a cable in 1934. Brave, but on a leash.
Coming in the deep ocean films
See them in a new film every day.
Subscribe on YouTubeSeason 2: the deep ocean
Three long films about the deep sea, with Shorts along the way. Scroll down. The bottom of the Mariana Trench is about 10,935 meters below you.
Source Greenaway et al. 2021, Deep Sea Research I (NOAA repository)
214 m
The official record for diving on one breath, set in 2007. The very bottom is fifty times deeper.
Source Guinness World Records
In the Short What Happens to Your Body at the Bottom of the Ocean?
923 m
In 1934 two men rode the Bathysphere down to here, hanging from a steel cable.
Source APS News, Bathysphere
1 km
Not a speck of sunlight is left. About three quarters of the ocean's water is deeper than this.
Source NOAA Ocean Service, NOAA Ocean Explorer
In the Short How Deep Is the Ocean, Really?
Long film · coming for Halloween
Are Sea Monsters Real?
Sailors swore the sea was full of monsters. Were they lying?
3.7 km
The ocean floor, on average: about 3,682 m down. Then it cracks open into trenches.
Source NOAA Ocean Explorer
In the Short How Deep Is the Ocean, Really?
Long film · coming in November
Where Would Aliens Live?
Every living thing needs the Sun. Or does it?
8,336 m
The deepest fish ever filmed: a snailfish, in 2022. Scientists think fish can't survive much below about 8,400 m.
Source University of Western Australia, 2023, Yancey et al. 2014, PNAS
In the Short Deepest Fish Caught on Camera
8,849 m
As deep as Mount Everest is tall. The trench keeps going for about two more kilometers.
Source Al Jazeera, 2020
In the Short Mount Everest vs Mariana Trench
10,935 m
Long film · coming in October
What's Actually at the Bottom of the Ocean?
What's at the very bottom, and why did it take us so long to get there?
You reached the bottom. The deep ocean films come out this fall.
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Wondering about something we haven't covered yet? Send us the question. The best ones become films.
Questions hello@quirkscience.com
Every script is checked against published sources such as NASA, NOAA and peer reviewed papers, and the numbers on screen are the real ones.
Work with us
We'd love to make films with partners who want science explained well: museums, schools, science organizations and brands.
Write to hello@quirkscience.com with who you are, what you'd like to make and when. We share verified channel numbers once we're talking.
What we make with partners
- A sponsored segment inside a long film
- A sponsored Short
- Films made with museums, schools and science organizations