This is what's at the exact centre of the world

Wherever we may be jetting off to for our summer holidays this year, we are pretty sure you won't end up in the exact centre of the world.

Whether it be a trip across the States or somewhere nice in Europe, you have never been to Null Island.

While few people have been there, Null Island is in fact a place that is documented time and time again. But why is that?

Well, it is the exact centre of Earth - though it isn't exactly an island, even though its name may imply.

Null Island is essentially the jokey name given to the location at zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude - aka the exact centre of the Earth.

In a more science sense of the equation, this is where Earth's prime meridian meets the equator.

The name is often used in mapping software as a placeholder to help find and correct database entries that have been assigned to the coordinates 0,0 in error.

Getty Stock Photo

And it is true that Null Island started as a joke within the geospatial community, but it's since become a name that has stuck around.

In fact, it has become a useful means of addressing a recurring issue in geographic information science.

But how exactly do these come about?

Well, the US Library of Congress blog explains: "Unfortunately, due to human typos, messy data, or even glitches in the geocoder itself, the geocoding process doesn’t always run so smoothly.

"Misspelled street names, non-existent building numbers, and other quirks can create invalid addresses that can confuse a geocoder so that the output becomes '0,0'."

So, where exactly is Null Island?

It is, in fact, located roughly 600 kilometres off the coast of West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea. The nearest land is a small islet 570km to the north that is a part of Ghana.

As for the nearest point on the mainland, that is Achowa Point found between Akwidaa and Dixcove, both of which are in Ghana.

While there is no actual island there, it's not entirely empty.

NDBC/NOAA

If you made the long, very difficult journey to the prime meridian, you'd find a buoy called Station 13010 - Soul, which is used for weather monitoring.

So worth the trip then...

To this day, it remains unclear how the nickname of Null Island came about - just the fact it first appeared on Natural Earth.

"It is a fictional, 1-meter-square island located off Africa where the equator and prime meridian cross," the website states.

"Being centered at 0,0 (zero latitude, zero longitude) it is useful for flagging geocode failures which are routed to 0,0 by most mapping services."