The world’s largest coral was discovered in the South Pacific

Off the coast of the Solomon Islands lurks a centuries-old being that is so immense, it can be seen from space.

Discovered in October by the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas team, it is the world’s largest standalone coral. Coming in at roughly 34 meters wide, 32 meters long and 6 meters tall, the behemoth coral is longer than the average blue whale. It also dwarfs the world’s next largest-known coral, a 22-meter-wide coral in American Samoa known as Big Momma.