“The only break from the darkness comes when the sub drops through clusters of bioluminescence that look like stars in the Milky Way.”

Why is it great? This piece about mining companies exploring the bottom of the ocean creates an upside-down outer space. The whole story is a kind of extended metaphor between the exploration of space and the exploration of the depths of the sea, starting with the lede. It features a marine researcher  who "likes to stand on the deck of her research ship, looking down into the water the way an astronaut might look up at the stars."  Doesn't that have a "Little Prince" feel to it? Likewise, the Great Sentence above is dreamy and magical -- and, in fact, almost existential about life's flashes of brilliance. Oh, and read Katia Savchuk's great annotation of it here.