Taking a dip in the Gowanus Canal is a great idea if you're trying to find a quick, efficient way of contracting Legionnaires, or if you're a marine mammal on a suicide mission. In general, though, the smell alone is enough to keep most would-be bathers the hell away, but...it would be neat to see what's down there, right?

Luckily, researchers with the Brooklyn Atlantis Project have created a nifty unmanned surface vehicle equipped to navigate the canal's syphilitic "waters," with the goal primarily of retrieving "water" quality data, and more recently, 360° panoramic images.

The images—the result of three outings over the course of February—have been published in Google Views and Maps. Is that an ice floe or a plastic bag or a radioactive jelly fish? Who can say! In Maps, users can find the "photospheres" by toggling the yellow street-view "pegman," and zooming close enough to see the blue dots in the "water."

Go ahead, get in there!