Strange Objects Found In Space!
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From natural objects, to space phenomena we have trouble explaining, join me as we explore strange and mysterious objects found in space!
7. Oumuamua
What is a Oumuamua? Well, it's technically the universes first interstellar object. One that was found in 2017 by scientists. What does "interstellar object" mean exactly? That would be an object that is flying through space yet isn't tied to the gravity or pull of a star or other object. So basically, it's something that is hurtling through space on its own without anyone's help. Unlike things like comets and asteroids which are given direction and form via things like collisions and planetary gravity.
This is why Oumuamua is so special in the eyes of scientists, because at points in their research on it, they found that Oumuamua was actually going faster and faster as it traveled through space...even though it wasn't passing through anything or by anything that would allow it to do that.
Technically speaking, there are other objects in the universe that move around like Oumuamua, but because of the oddity of the object, as well as the fact that it's over 3000 feet in length, there are many people who feel that this isn't some kind of random space object. Instead...they think it's an alien craft!
No, really, people honestly felt that this was an alien craft of some kind, to the extent that there was heavy research into thinking about what it would mean if it was an alien craft.
But, then, a study that came out in 2019 all but proved that this was a comet, albeit an irregular. One, even going so far as to state how it gets extra propulsion via its movements and gasses that are emitted.
“The [study’s] overall reasoning seems sounds, and the results are a really good match to the observed characteristics of ‘Oumuamua,” Marco Micheli, a scientist at the European Space Agency told Scientific American.
But others still aren’t convinced that Oumumua is a comet.
“It does not look like at least 99.999 percent of the solar system’s comets,” Avi Loeb, astrophysicist at Harvard University, also told Scientific American. Loeb is also one of the scientists who thinks ‘Oumuamua might be an alien artifact.
This would hardly be the first time that people think that an object from space is an alien craft or device of some kind. But, it would be the first time that it happened in the modern era to such a degree.
So is it a comet, or is it something more? Only time will reveal the true answers to this mystery.
6. El Gordo Galaxy Cluster
When it comes to weird objects in space, size doesn't always matter, and in truth, sometimes it's the biggest things out there that are the ones that we need to keep an eye on in terms of strangeness and mysteriousness.
For example, El Gordo may mean "fat one" in Spanish, but in regards to the galaxy cluster that it was named for, it's representative of just how massive the cluster is. And trust me when I say that this thing is MASSIVE.
In fact, it's the largest galaxy cluster ever observed by scientists, which is quite impressive when you think about it. And at present, as best we can tell, it has more mass than our sun by a scale of 3 million billion. No, I didn't misstype that, that's a very real scientific number, and further proof of how massive the cluster itself is.
The size of this cluster is what has drawn many to it not surprisingly, as it's strange how this cluster contains so much, especially when you consider that it's 9.7 billion lightyears from us, which means that getting to it would be a literal impossible journey without advanced technology to help us get there. You almost have to wonder about all the things that reside within the El Gordo Galaxy Cluster to allow it to have such mass. Is there just a lot of matter that somehow ended up there? Is it that the gravity of the cluster is so massive that it just continues to pull in objects and such to give it more mass? What exactly is going on here? No one really knows the answer, which again is why people study it.
Another interesting fact about this galaxy cluster is that it emits a large amount of X-Rays, and according to Felipe Menanteau, who studied the cluster, it emits more than any other galaxy cluster out there, and beyond.
X-rays as noted are somewhat common in the universe via galaxies, but why does El Gordo emit so many of them? Curiouser and curiouser.
5. The Red Rectangle Nebula
There are a lot of things out there in the universe beyond solid objects. And one such things is cosmic gasses. Often times, the universe has massive gas clouds that are formed from former planets, dying stars, and even cosmic radiation. And sometimes it's just the particulate matter of the universe that helps make these things.