A Mysterious Golden Orb Has Appeared On Alaska’s Ocean Floor ‘Like A Horror Movie'
During a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expedition, scientists discovered a soft golden orb about two miles underwater.
Closer examination during a live streaming showed the unknown object to have a “skin-like” feel.
One researcher said it was “like the beginning of a horror movie” as they used the underwater robot to explore the mystery.
Finding gold in Alaska has never looked quite like it did during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expedition that uncovered a mysterious golden orb two miles underwater off a remote Alaskan coast.
During a livestream of the Seascape Alaska 5 expedition, which aims to map, explore, and characterize deep water habitats in unexplored regions off Alaska, the researchers manning the underwater robot caught a glimpse of a shiny golden orb, complete with a hole.
“Something tried to get in,” a researcher said during the feed, “or to get out.”
The team then discussed the best way to approach observing the X-Files-like monster. “I just hope when we poke it, something doesn’t decide to come out,” one researcher said. “It’s like the beginning of a horror movie.”
When the underwater arm reached out to test the waters on the orb, the team found the texture was “skin-like.” That prompted even more discussion as to the origin of the colored orb, whether some sort of unique egg casing or a type of sponge species.
The group was able to delicately suction the orb for lab testing, but the theories on the true nature of the yellow-brown orb—the lights of the underwater machinery gave it the golden color—haven’t stopped.
Kerry Howell, deep-sea ecologist at the University of Plymouth, tells The Guardian that finding new species during exploratory missions isn’t strange, but not having a category to place them in certainly is.
“We’ll often see new things but will usually have a pretty good knowledge of what they are,” she says. “What’s unusual about this thing is we’re not even sure what it is. Is it an egg, is it a sponge, what is it? We’re going with egg because of the texture. It felt fleshy and it doesn’t have any obvious anatomy. It has a hole in it that suggests something has come in or gone out. But it doesn’t look like any egg I’ve ever seen.”
And therein lies the deeper quandary. “If it is an egg,” she added, “the really interesting question is whose egg is it? It’s quite big. That’s not a small fish egg. That’s a sizeable thing.”
The NOAA Ocean Exploration scientists will continue to travel nearly 20,000 feet deep in the “abyssal depths of the Gulf of Alaska” through September 16—all livestreamed, of course—and see if they can find yet another mysterious orb in places never before seen by humans. Along the way, the team, which started the mission on August 23, will continue to examine everything from deep-sea coral and sponge habitats to mud volcanoes.
Even without another wildly new marine life sighting, DNA testing in a lab may provide essential clues to solve the mystery of the colored Alaskan orb.
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