The first-ever full 3D scan of the Titanic has been released and it shows the historic passenger liner in a way that we've never seen it before.
As many of you will know, The Titanic is one of the most famous ships to ever set sail. The ill-fated passenger liner first made its maiden voyage from Southampton on April 10, 1912, with 2,240 passengers and crew onboard the state-of-the-art vessel.
Tragically, just five days later as the ship sailed across the North Atlantic Ocean, it struck an iceberg which resulted in the Titanic breaking in half and sinking to the depths, as per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Of those onboard, more than 1500 people sadly lost their lives before the Titanic could reach its intended destination of New York City.
The ship is resting around 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada - and is at a depth of around 12,000 feet.
There have been attempts to salvage some elements of the Titanic but it would be impossible to bring it to the surface intact, so the decision was made to leave it in its final resting place.
For decades people have been intrigued by the Titanic, made even more famous by the movie featuring a young Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet.
In fact, the movie's director, James Cameron, has spent so much time around the wreckage that he has actually been around the vessel longer than those who were on board it during its voyage, per CBC.
New state-of-the-art technology has produced 3D scans of the ship so now we can see the impressive remains as if it were sitting on dry land.
As reported by the BBC, the mapping of the Titanic was carried out by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, and Atlantic Productions, who are shooting a documentary about the new findings.
They took over 700,000 images from every possible angle, using remote-controlled submersibles to give an in-depth 3D model of the vessel.
The ship lies in two parts, with the bow and stern separated by around 2600 feet. It is also surrounded by debris.
Magellan's Gerhard Seiffert, the leader of the group, said that this was the biggest underwater project that he had ever taken on.
"The depth of it, almost 4,000m, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too - and we're not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck," he said.
"The other challenge is that you have to map every square centimeter - even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects."
While some of the ship has been ravaged by time and the elements, the front is still recognizable and there are even details still viewable such as serial numbers on parts of the propellers.
Parks Stephenson, who has studied the ship for many years, stated that these new images may be able to tell us more about the night that the Titanic sank.
He explained: "We really don't understand the character of the collision with the iceberg. We don't even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as is shown in all the movies - she might have grounded on the iceberg."
While the condition of the Titanic continues to deteriorate at the bottom of the ocean, these new images will give experts more of an opportunity to study them in depth so we can really know the finer details of one of the most famous catastrophes in history.
