15 MOST Mysterious Space Discoveries

Over the years, scientists have observed some unusual anomalies in outer space. From massive alien superstructures to unsettling faces on Mars, here are the top 15 most mysterious space discoveries. Number 15, Dyson Sphere. In 1960, a theoretical physicist called Freeman Dyson released a paper that detailed what he believed civilizations would have to do to satisfy their rapidly increasing energy demands. On our own planet, for example, our energy consumption increases dramatically each year. And if this trend were to continue, it would eventually become impossible to provide as much as needed. Dyson believed that the obvious conclusion was the need to build a giant sphere around a star, which would be able to absorb all of the energy it emits. In theory, if you were to build it as far out as the Earth orbits, then we would be able to live on the inside surface and be able to collect all the energy we could possibly need. Of course, this is a monumental feat of engineering to accomplish, and it was really only a thought experiment rather than something he truly thought was possible. In recent years, with improving technology that allows us to look further into outer space, the race has been on to discover planets around stars other than our own. To do this, scientists measure the fluctuations in light that reaches us from a star, and can infer the presence of a planet from how it changes. But they made an incredible discovery. Tabby's star, which is around 1470 light years from Earth, sometimes dims by as much as 22%, which raises the question of what could be blocking it. One of the leading theories is that there's a partially built Dyson Sphere around it, with the civilization responsible for constructing it already benefiting from the huge amounts of energy. Could the star's strange behavior be truly the result of an alien megastructure, or something we're yet to discover that causes the same effect? Only further studies will reveal the truth for sure. 14. The Boötes Void Even though the universe is so vast and spread out, the density of stars and galaxies remains relatively constant and predictable across all of existence. There are, however, some regions that are completely unexpected with very little matter whatsoever, and the largest of these is known as the Boötes Void. At around 330 million light years across, it represents around 0.27% of the observable universe and is an incredibly large region of space. Often referred to as a supervoid, it's around 700 million light years away from us and is remarkably empty. Current estimates suggest it only has around 60 galaxies in it, whereas a similarly sized region in most other parts of the universe would be expected to have around 2,000 galaxies. To put this into perspective, if our galaxy, the Milky Way, was in the center, it would only have been in the past few decades that we've had any idea that other galaxies actually existed. As for the reason behind this massive void, no one has any idea at all. It's possible that it grew so large after the merging of several smaller voids that acted like bubbles and pushed matter out of the way, but we simply don't have enough of an understanding of the universe to fully explain this process. 13. Oumuamua our solar system is full of rocks and particles that orbit around the sun in the same way that the planets do and it's not uncommon for some of them to take on a different trajectory to everything else which is why the planets are often struck by falling pieces of debris most of the comets and meteors originate in our solar system however whether it be from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or from the Kuiper belt beyond the orbit of Neptune In October of 2017, though, something very unusual was discovered, known as Oumuamua. The piece of rock, which was between 330 and 3280 feet long, is thought to have originated somewhere else outside of our solar system. It was the first object we've ever studied that's traveled from so far away, and it was the sheer speed at which it was traveling that suggested that it couldn't have started life within the grasp of our sun. As it traveled closer to Earth, images showed it to be cigar-shaped, and it had a red color in a similar way to the objects from the outer reaches of the solar system. Quite where it came from, how many others there may be like it, and how long it has been traveling before it reached us isn't known. But what scientists learn from Oumuamua will almost certainly inform how they study the next object like it that passes by. 12. The Great Attractor While the universe is full of countless different strange objects that interact with their surroundings in different ways, when you average out the behavior of everything in it, the layout is fairly predictable with most matter moving in an expansive direction. There's one region, though, that we simply don't understand, but it could be the key to unlocking a much deeper knowledge of the universe and the processes that take place within it. Known as the Great Attractor, it's a huge gravitational anomaly that's around 200 million light years away from the Milky Way galaxy. Rather than affecting the orbit of the planets or stars, the Great Attractor exerts its influence on much larger objects and is believed to be the central point of the Laniakea galaxy supercluster, which contains the Milky Way along with up to 10,000 other similarly sized galaxies. The Great Attractor is itself moving towards the nearby Shapley supercluster. One of the biggest mysteries in space at the moment is what could the Great Attractor possibly contain that is able to affect the movement of huge galaxies with supermassive black holes at the center of them? Unfortunately, finding an answer to this isn't as simple as pointing a telescope towards it, because it's currently on the exact opposite side of the Milky Way than we are, and it's virtually impossible to look directly through the center of our own galaxy. Perhaps one day another attractor will be discovered that's easier to observe, or it'll simply be a matter of time until our orbit and galaxy gives us a better vantage point. But figuring out what the anomaly truly is will undoubtedly change our understanding of the universe forever. 11. Hoag's Object After studying countless galaxies in the universe, researchers have been able to put together general rules for their formation, and what they should look like during various stages of their life cycles. While this understanding accounts for the vast majority of objects that are seen in the sky, there are some notable outliers, with one of the strangest being Hoag's object. It's a galaxy that's around 600 million light years away from us, but unusually, it's a ring galaxy. These formations are rare enough, but Hoag's object doesn't seem to have formed in the same way as the others that have been discovered, because it has a noticeable gap between the yellow core and the newer formed blue stars. Could this be evidence that there's a whole different type of galaxy formation that hasn't been accounted for in our understanding of the universe? Is its distance away from us making it difficult to see its true nature, or is this galaxy simply a random occurrence? Researchers are now scouring the skies to try to find another like it, but so far, it remains one-of-a-kind. Number 10. The Red Rectangle Nebula First discovered in 1973, the Red Rectangle Nebula is a particularly unusual formation that's around 2,000 light-years away from Earth. It had long been known that there was a binary star system in that region of space, but it was only when it was properly imaged that scientists realized that this was a stellar object like no other. It's a surprisingly symmetrical bipolar nebula that almost looks like a cut gem floating in space. The main star at the center is in the last stages of life and is ejecting huge amounts of material, including polycyclic hydrocarbons and silicate-rich dust, which are responsible for its red color. The ridges, too, suggest the star has been releasing matter in pulses, which have been shifted by interstellar winds, and the closeness of the ridges towards the center implies that the process is increasing in speed, and it may not be too long until the star finally dies. What's mysterious about the Red Rectangle Nebula, though, is that most evidence that's needed to understand how it formed is hidden behind the nebula itself, so the current theories about its existence are nothing more than an educated guess. It's now being constantly watched, though, so if any changes do occur, scientists will be ready to analyze the new information. 9. Peggy The Earth's moon was formed in the nascent stages of our planet when a massive impact with another stellar object caused a huge amount of material to detach and form into its own piece of rock. But not all moons are formed this way. Some are meteors that have been captured in orbit of a planet, and others simply form in place, a process that had never been seen before until 2013. Near the edge of the rings around Saturn, a small 1.2 mile wide formation was spotted because it reflected a lot more light back than the dust that surrounded it. Astronomers were excited to find that they'd be able to witness a moon being formed, but these hopes were dashed in 2014 when images failed to find this new moon that had been called Peggy. The following year, when the Cassini probe took images of the rings, Peggy was once again seen. But this time it was a lot smaller, and there was a large rock orbiting very close to it. It's thought this must mean that Peggy collided with another piece of rock and broke in two. Peggy has now moved further into the rings. It's thought likely that it'll contact a lot more material with the ring itself and potentially become two or three times the size it is now over the course of a few decades. Or it'll be broken up and returned to the dust from whence it came. As the formation of a moon like this has never been documented, no one is sure quite what will happen. We are constantly adding more people to the Top 5's production team to bring you all the best content. Be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button! Number 8. Faces on Mars In the early days of space exploration, a NASA probe called Viking 1 was orbiting Mars to take photos to help mission control decide on a landing spot for Viking 2. When the images came back, the world was stunned to see what looked like a giant face that was almost two miles long as protruded from the ground in a region called Cydonia. This obviously fueled speculation that it was an ancient monument built by inhabitants of the red planet, because how could something like this occur naturally? Those working at NASA already suspected the truth was far less exciting, that this was just a Martian Mesa, of which there are many, and that shadows just so happen to make it look like a human face. They also felt that releasing the images would ignite public interest in Mars, which they did, and the face soon became a pop icon in its own right, featuring in countless books, magazines, and TV shows. Despite knowing it was just a coincidence, the Mesa was a top priority site for imaging when the Mars Global Surveyor reached the planet in 1998 and again in 2001. To everyone's dismay, these new higher resolution images simply showed a large landform, and all signs of human features were nowhere to be seen. Number 7. Magnetic Rogue Planet Planets are formed when disks of material orbit around a star and coalesce, but it's always been a mystery what happens to them when a star dies, or whether it's possible for one to form outside of a solar system. So-called rogue planets have long been a top target for researchers, but the fact that, if they exist, would be in the deep recesses of space without any light sources, it's almost impossible to actively search for them. In 2017, though, astronomers announced the first such discovery, a planet called SIMP 0136. It's a brown dwarf, so it's somewhere between a planet like we normally think of them and a star, and it's thought to be around 12 times the size of Jupiter. Thought to have originated in a nearby group of stars, there's one thing that's particularly stood out about this discovery. Researchers noticed that it produced its own auroras, similar to the ones that we see on Earth, which meant that it must have its own magnetic field. Wasn't known for sure whether this was possible, especially for an object that had been adrift for so long, but the mechanisms behind its occurrence are still not understood. Number 6. Elst Pizarro Apart from planets, moons, and stars, the objects that are most commonly seen in our solar system are comets and asteroids. The two types of objects are distinguished by their properties, with comets being made up of ice and rock that release a tail of vapor when they're warmed up by the sun, and asteroids consisting of rock and, in effect, being miniature planets. While virtually every object that's been discovered has fit into one of these two classifications, Elst Pizarro is the exception to the rule. First recorded in 1979, it was designated as a minor planet with a stable orbit in between those of Mars and Jupiter. But the more it was studied, the stranger it turned out to be. It's now regarded as both an asteroid and a comet, since it behaves like an asteroid and is orbiting where other asteroids come from, but at the same time develops a tail during certain parts of its orbit. This raises further questions because it could signify the presence of water in the asteroid belt, which may provide clues as to where the water on Earth came from in the first place. The plan currently is to launch a probe in 2028 that will be able to land on El Pizarro five years later. And if it's able to collect the right samples, it could even provide a deeper understanding for how our planet, and perhaps life, developed. Number five, Haumea. When the decision was made to demote Pluto from being considered a proper planet, it seemed like quite a major step to take. In reality, though, it was because astronomers were only beginning to understand the objects that existed in the Kuiper belt at the edge of the solar system, and it became clear that Pluto was just the first one of these to have been discovered. There are far more mysterious objects in that region of space, though, one of which is called Haumea. It's an oval-shaped dwarf planet that's about a tenth the size of Earth with a diameter of 385 miles and has two moons of its own. Interestingly, a day on Haumea lasts for just four Earth hours, which makes it one of the fastest spinning objects in the whole of the solar system. It's about 43 times the distance from the Sun as Earth is, which means it takes light more than 6 hours to reach it. It takes 285 Earth years to complete one rotation around the Sun. But what's not clear is how it formed in the first place, and why it's such an unusual shape. Normally, objects that form when material combines together will become spherical, and it's very rare for something to spin as fast as Haumea does. It's therefore thought that it was subjected to a large collision at some point in history, one that changed its shape and speed forever. If Haumea is anything to go by, the other objects in the Kuiper Belt are likely to be just as strange, which makes it one of the last uncharted regions still to explore in our nearby stellar neighborhood. 4. Planet orbiting a dead star In the dying stages of a star, it'll often go supernova, which means it significantly expands in size and either destroys or expels any objects that are orbiting it at the time, or at least that's how things were thought to happen. A recent discovery, however, has shown that this is not always the case, and has forced a rethink of what happens to everything in a solar system when the host star has run out of fuel. After the supernova stage, a star collapses back in on itself to create a super-dense white dwarf. These are littered throughout our galaxy and are often studied, but one in particular returns some interesting results. Lying around 2,000 light-years away from Earth, researchers measured emissions of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen that were coming from it, which is quite unusual, so they looked closer. They found the elements were emanating from a ring of gas around the star, which, it turned out, was trailing a Neptune-like planet that was orbiting it every 10 days. It's something that had never been seen before and is yet to be seen anywhere either. Quite how the planet managed to survive so close to a star that was once supernova is not entirely clear, but it proves that the assumptions that have been made about the evolution of star systems need to be revisited. 3. Hyperion Saturn has 83 known moons that aren't within its rings, and each one of them has its own unique properties. The strangest of them all, though, is Hyperion, which was first discovered in 1848. It's an irregular shape, has an unpredictable rotation, and is covered in craters, and it was the first non-spherical moon to ever be found. The current theory of why Hyperion is such a strange shape that it is was once a part of a much bigger moon that was destroyed in a collision, and what we see as Hyperion is all that remains. This large proto-Hyperion could have been up to 620 miles in diameter, and the release of all this material would almost certainly have had an effect on other nearby moons, and potentially added to Saturn's rings. A further mystery are the craters on its surface, which are so deep that probes have been unable to image what's at the bottom of them. It's often referred to as a sponge moon because of the way it looks. Recent estimates have suggested that as much as 40% of the moon is actually empty space. This has led to the strange wobble in its orbit, which doesn't appear to follow a set pattern like most other objects do. It means that it exerts a weaker gravitational force than would be expected for something its size. Thought to be made purely of rock and ice, the Cassini probe flew quite close to it in 2005, which is why there are such good images of the moon. But this also found a further mystery of Hyperion. It has a slight electrical charge to it, and right now, no one knows why. 2. Solar Terminator Events The more we learn about the Sun, the more fascinating it becomes. Far from being a flaming ball of gas in the sky, it's a complex network of magnetic fields, plasma fountains, and strange blobs of unexplained matter that are formed at its surface. But recently, researchers have discovered some of the most powerful events ever measured, known as solar terminator events. You probably know that the Sun goes through a cycle of peaks and troughs in terms of activity every 11 years or so. There are times when it's far more active than others. Towards the end of the cycle, there are fewer sunspots and emissions. So scientists were trying to find out what happens to kickstart the process all over again. They found that, towards the end of the cycle, weakened magnetic fields collide along the Sun's equator, and these trigger huge tsunamis of plasma that ripple across its surface for weeks at a time. In the wake of these storms, which are the most powerful to take place in the solar system, giant spots begin to form on the Sun, and the cycle starts again. Quite how these terminator events are triggered is not known, though. And it's not entirely clear if this happens at the end of every cycle, or whether it's less frequent than that. One thing's for sure, and that's that there's still a lot more to learn about the star that we rely on so much, and what we find out could have profound consequences for us as a species. Number 1. Borisov. While Oumuamua was the first object to have been detected that originated from outside our solar system, it is now long past us and it's impossible to study it anymore. That's not a problem though, because what they learned about it, researchers have already managed to locate another object that also came from somewhere else, a comet called Borisov that had a tail more than a hundred thousand miles long. The first close-up image of it was captured in November of 2019. Where it was seen surrounded by a bright white glow. The reason why it was certain that Borisov isn't from our solar system is because its trajectory and incredible speed. It was moving so fast that it was only spotted several weeks before it passed Earth. And by now, it's well on its way to leaving our solar system altogether. That's an impressive feat in itself, considering it's taken Voyager probes more than 40 years to accomplish the same thing. As for its origins, this still remains unclear. The region between solar systems is virtually empty, with no way for new rocks to be formed, so it's unlikely that it came from a nearby star. But with the nearest being more than four light-years away from us, it's been a long journey for it to get here. Watch our Obscure playlist for more top 15 videos about the more obscure subjects in our world. Sit back, relax, and binge-watch all of our best and most obscure videos.