In space, there are some things that we’ve never actually seen, but that we know should be there.
Dark matter, for example, which we know must exist, but only due to the effects it has on
the universe around it - not because we look into the sky and instantly see it. On the other hand,
however, there are phenomena that have been seen (or heard) even though science says they
shouldn't really be there. Or that they’re not expected to be there. So, what gives?
This is Unveiled and today we’re exploring
four unexplained things that scientists have seen in space.
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In the twenty-first century, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to state-of-the-art space
and science initiatives. Whether it’s the Hubble Telescope, which takes high definition pictures of
the universe … the Spitzer Space Telescope, which captures infrared radiation from obscure space
structures… or the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which provides X-ray images of space in all its
glory… it all helps to improve our knowledge. And those are just the predominantly NASA ventures!
Nowadays, while NASA is still the biggest and best-funded space agency out there,
there are various others that are hot on their heels - including China’s CNSA,
India’s ISRO, and Europe’s ESA. Regardless of who’s running the experiments, though,
they’ve helped scientists to find better-than-ever answers to some of our oldest questions,
including how old the universe is and how it formed in the first place.
However, sometimes the cutting-edge equipment sees things that can’t quite be explained. Things that
don’t quite fit with conventional theories. In 1912 Victor Hess made the Nobel Prize-winning
discovery of Cosmic Rays when he observed radiation entering Earth from outside the
atmosphere. Cosmic rays are charged particles that can form in the sun,
but also out of other especially energetic events in space. For the most part,
researchers have a good understanding of them… but Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (or, UHECRs) are a
different ball game, and remain a mystery. And, in 1991, astronomers at the University of Utah
recorded a cosmic ray so powerful that it equalled the kinetic energy of a baseball travelling at
sixty miles an hour - an incomprehensible measure for a single atomic nucleus.
This was so shocking and unexpected, in fact, that the UHECR in question was nicknamed the
Oh-My-God particle. Researchers have no idea where this and particles like it could be coming from,
so it could be that the OMG came from outside or inside the Milky Way… but, regardless, we also
don’t know what caused it. Really, though, it’s more than just not knowing what event could have
caused these particles, because by some measures they shouldn’t even be possible. Chiefly, we don’t
know how protons can even reach the speeds of the Oh-My-God Particle. Protons travelling above
what’s known as the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit (which the OMG was) should naturally lose speed by
interacting with the cosmic microwave background… but the OMG wasn’t doing that. It’s been said,
then, that the Oh-My-God Particle seems to break the laws of special relativity.
And scientists simply can’t explain it. While particle science is a relatively new field,
however, we’ve been studying the stars since ancient times. And yet Star KIC 8462852,
also known as Boyajian’s Star (after the astronomer Tabetha S. Boyajian) has been
widely called the most mysterious star in the universe. Even the world’s leading experts have
been stumped by it. The star itself has been known about for centuries, but in 2015 it was Boyajian
who first noted how strange the light coming off of it was. For one, the star experiences
regular dimming of up to twenty-two percent - a massive change, and one that can’t possibly
be caused by a nearby planet, as it’s said that even a planet the size of Jupiter would barely
cover one percent of the light. Additionally, the periods of dimming have no discernible
pattern… and they come from different parts of the star, so it can’t possibly be a single,
large blockade that’s causing it. What’s stranger still is that, by using archived data,
astronomers have noticed that Boyajian’s Star has been growing dimmer overall, too, with the
changes taking place over just decades - rather than the millions of years we might expect.
Many theories have been put forward, but none can truly explain every abnormality seen here…
which has led some to seriously consider whether alien megastructures could be at play,
affecting the light as they pass? But the most prominent theory is that it’s dust clouds that
are causing the dimming… although the prospect of cosmic dust brings about other questions, too.
Stars with dust around them are usually younger stars, but Boyajian’s Star is quite old. So,
why’s it bucking the trend? Plus, the dust should have blown away by now, but it remains,
so it must be replenishing - but how? And, still, it’s been said that the amount of dust needed for
this explanation to work is a cloud about the size of the moon. Not impossible but, again,
unusual. So, it’s little wonder that astronomers continue to monitor Boyajian’s Star so closely.
One thing that astronomers have on their side with stars, however, is that they at least are
relatively simple to track… while some other objects pass by so fast that we can barely see
them. That’s what happened with ‘Oumuamua, the first observed object that came from outside our
solar system. Unfortunately, when it was spotted in 2017, astronomers had only a small timeframe to
view the infamous object before it flew past Earth and back out toward the outer planets’ orbits, and
beyond. As such, ‘Oumuamua was notoriously tricky to classify and remains mostly unexplained.
It may have been a comet, but no cometary tail was recorded. It could have been an asteroid,
except it gave off ten times more light than asteroids usually do. According to the Harvard
astronomer Avi Loeb, it could have been a passing alien spacecraft… while there’s yet another theory
that ‘Oumuamua comes from another world in another star system, but a world that’s not unlike Pluto,
and that it’s made of nitrogen ice. The Yale astronomer Gregory Laughlin, however, has noted
that “none of the theories are a slam-dunk”. The apparent uniqueness of ‘Oumuamua is what’s
caused most of the confusion and debate. All theories (except Loeb’s) quickly suggest that we
should be seeing many more objects just like it in space… but we aren’t. And now that it’s no longer
close enough to us, we may never know for sure exactly what that cigar-shaped something was.
Finally, though, we know that not all the strangeness in space is seen with our eyes.
Some of it is heard, in a manner of speaking. We of course also know that space is a vacuum
that sound itself can’t travel through… but radio waves can, and a strange case of that is what NASA
“heard” in 2006. A team had sent up its ARCADE machine - with the acronym ARCADE standing for
Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission - to measure radio signals
coming from the cosmos. They had expected that detecting the signals might’ve been difficult,
but actually it was easy… as one came through loud and clear, and six times louder than it
should have been. The signal was swiftly dubbed the space roar. To date, no one knows where it
comes from and, indeed, it appears to be coming from all angles… but again there are theories,
largely split into two camps; the generally deemed less likely idea that it’s from within
the Milky Way, and the generally believed more likely theory that it’s from outside our galaxy.
Slightly more specifically, researchers believe it could be a by-product of the earliest stars in
the universe, or that it may have originated from a large cluster of different galaxies…
but the data is by no means clear. More than fifteen years later, then, and this one,
strange measurement remains a mystery. Another unsolved problem in astrophysics.
Despite the mysterious nature of all these cases, however, they’re still extremely important. They
force us to fix existing theories, and to rethink what we thought we knew… and
that’s all part of improving our knowledge on how the universe works. No scientist or
astronomer would ever claim that we know it all already, and as our technology improves you can
bet that there will be more such anomalies uncovered in the coming years and decades!
For now, though, let’s view them all as opportunities. Whether it’s massive
cosmic rays, unexpected space roars, stars that don’t behave as we expect them to, or
here-and-gone-again interstellar objects, they could all lead to a major breakthrough, one day.
And those are four unexplained things that scientists have seen in space.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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