- The universe is an infinitely large
and ever-expanding place, and over the last
several hundred years that we've studied it,
to this day, we continue to find mysterious things.
Things that we simply don't understand,
things that defy explanation.
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Here are the 10 most mysterious objects found in space.
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Number 10 is Galaxy X.
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Once thought of as purely theoretical,
there is now good evidence suggesting that our galaxy,
the Milky Way, has a ghostly companion.
Often referred to as Galaxy X, it's believed
that this galaxy orbits around our own.
The reason that we cannot easily detect
such a massive object in space is that
it's probably made out of dark matter,
an elusive substance which is theorized
to make up about 25% of the universe.
Astronomers believe that they may have found the location
of Galaxy X 290,000 light-years from our galaxy.
It's believed that unusual tidal effects
within the Milky Way can be explained
by the gravitational effects of Galaxy X.
But there's controversy over what exactly
is Galaxy X made out of, what's within it,
and will we ever truly understand it.
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Number nine is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall.
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The Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall
is bigger than you can possibly imagine.
And one of the most mysterious regions in space.
Thought to be the largest structure in the universe
known by man, this superstructure consists of
a sheet-like pattern of galaxies
about 10 billion light-years long,
and 7.2 billion light-years wide.
This is equal to 10.7% of the diameter
of the entire observable universe.
Discovered in 2013, astronomers and physicists
are still wrapping their heads around the implications
of this structure, it seems to violate
Einstein's Cosmological Principle, which states
that the largest structures in the universe
should be around 1.2 billion light-years in size.
The Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall
is eight times that, and no one is even certain
how it's possible that it exists.
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Number eight is the CMB Cold Spot.
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There is a massive region of space
which is colder than it should be,
and that discovery has created an enduring mystery.
Known as the CMB Cold Spot, this region violates
what physicists would expect to see throughout the universe.
After the Big Bang which created the universe,
a residue from the unimaginable explosion
called the Cosmic Background Radiation
was left throughout the cosmos.
This can be thought of as an echo of the Big Bang.
It should be homogenous, in other words,
the same across the universe,
but the CMB Cold Spot contradicts this,
and is significantly colder than surrounding areas.
Possible explanations for this include it being
a hypothesized sparse region of space known as a supervoid.
Another could be that it's a bruise in our universe,
when it collided with another universe
at some point in the past.
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Number seven are Fermi bubbles.
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There are two huge bubbles of gamma rays
billowing out of our galaxy, and so far,
there's no consensus as to what they are or how they formed.
If you imagine the Milky Way as a huge,
revolving disc of stars known as the galactic plane,
one Fermi bubble extends from the center of the galaxy
above the galactic plane, and the other is below it.
And they are massive, it's estimated that they measure
23,000 light-years in diameter each,
and contain enough gas to create
two million stars similar to our sun.
Some believe that a huge, explosive event occurred
at the center of our galaxy up to nine million years ago.
What that even was is up for debate,
but some believe that the bubbles were produced
by a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
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Number six is Lyman-alpha blobs.
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Lyman-alpha blobs are gigantic gaseous structures
produced by an unknown mechanism.
Some of these blobs are hundreds of thousands
of light-years across, and rank among
the largest objects in the known universe.
The first blob ever discovered was LAB-1 in the year 2000,
and has been studied extensively since.
One recent development suggests that these blobs
are a trick of the light here on Earth.
They may appear to be fuzzy and indistinct,
but it's possible that they contain
several galaxies orbiting each other,
producing stars at an unusually high rate.
It's thought by some that the Lyman-alpha blobs
may be the mechanism through which
galaxies themselves are formed.
We will never know for sure until we have
the technology available to study them.
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Number five are green bean galaxies.
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Green bean galaxies are extraordinarily rare and mysterious.
What makes these galaxies so mysterious
is the way that they glow.
In a normal galaxy, a super massive black hole
tends to sit at its center, causing dust around it to glow.
This region covers about 10% of the galaxy.
But in green bean galaxies, the entire galaxy glows.
One theory is that this is caused
by a quasar ionization echo.
This simply means that there was a huge,
short-lived event at the center of the galaxy,
which produced the glow for a limited time,
perhaps 20,000 to 200,000 years in duration,
and the glow we see at this moment is an echo of this.
And some argue that these phases may happen again,
despite not truly knowing when or how they happen.
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Number four is Tabby's Star.
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Tabby's Star is the name given to one of the
most perplexing mysteries in recent astronomy.
This star is like no other.
The amount of light produced by Tabby's Star
varies on as much as 22%.
Actual variable stars do exist,
but Tabby's Star doesn't fit that profile,
it's what's known as an F-type main-sequence star,
and shouldn't behave anything like this.
Instead, it appears as though something
is orbiting the star, and partially obscuring it.
Now this does happen when planets pass
between us and a star, but the amount of dimming
is what sets Tabby's Star apart.
So far, no agreed explanation has ever been found,
but suggestions include that an orbiting planet,
recently disintegrating and leaving debris
around the star is the reason.
It could also be uncommonly high volume of comets,
or asteroids in the system, or even more mysteriously,
an alien structure known as a Dyson ring.
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Number three is Segue 1.
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Segue 1 is an unusual object which orbits our galaxy.
With a mass 600,000 times that of our entire solar system,
it produces a combined light output equal to 300 suns.
This sounds like a lot, but it's actually
extremely dim compared to its galactic neighborhood.
Consisting of mainly ancient stars
from around 12 billion years ago,
the Segue 1 contains around 1,000 star systems.
Astronomers aren't sure if it's a true galaxy,
or even a globular cluster of stars,
because it doesn't fit the profile.
But the biggest mystery of the Segue 1 is that it has
an unusually high mass-to-light ratio, which may suggest
that this object is dominated by dark matter.
Then there are others that suggest
that the Segue 1 is a precursor to a galaxy
which never completed the final steps
of its evolution for some reason.
The only thing that is certain about the Segue 1
is that nothing is certain.
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Number two is CDF-S XT1.
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In 2017, astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
discovered a unique x-ray source called CDF-S XT1.
This event was a highly energetic explosion
resulting from an unknown destructive event.
But unlike other high energy bursts,
this one had some unique properties,
including becoming 1,000 times brighter
in just a few hours before disappearing.
Though the source isn't certain,
data from the Hubble space telescope
suggests that it came from a galaxy
10.7 billion light-years from Earth.
In just a few minutes, it produced 1,000 times
more energy than all the stars in its home galaxy.
Explanations include a gamma ray burst
pointing away from the Earth,
or a black hole destroying a white dwarf star.
Then there's a third possibility that it came
from something that we've never encountered before.
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And number one is the Zone of avoidance.
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Known as the Zone of avoidance, this area of the night sky
hides a number of perplexing mysteries.
Due to interstellar dust and star systems
blocking our view along the galactic plane,
astronomers have found it difficult
to study what may lie beyond this region.
This accounts for as much as 10% of the night sky.
Inside this zone sits the Great Attractor.
This is an unknown object or structure which is
pulling galaxies, including our own, towards it.
Some recent studies suggest that it may be
a super cluster of undiscovered galaxies
hidden behind the galactic plane,
but until we figure out a way to observe
the Zone of avoidance correctly, mystery is still
going to surround the area, and the Great Attractor.
Who knows what amazing, mysterious, or potentially
even terrifying things wait to be discovered.
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