A strange, mound-shaped object sitting quietly at the bottom of the ocean left scientists scratching their heads for nearly three years. Found deep beneath the waters off Alaska in 2023, the shiny golden orb looked unlike anything researchers had seen before. Some guessed it could be an egg, a sponge, or even a weird coral. Now, after years of testing and countless samples, scientists have finally cracked the case. And no, before your imagination runs wild, it’s not alien technology. Keep on reading to know everything.
Meet The Mysterious Golden Orb
The unusual object was first spotted on August 30, 2023, during an expedition in the Gulf of Alaska. A team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was exploring the seafloor at a depth of around 10,827 feet (3,300 metres) when they came across the brass-coloured orb.
It measured about 4 inches wide (10 centimetres) and had a small hole near its base where it appeared to be attached to a rock.At first glance, researchers thought it might be an egg casing, a dead sea sponge, or some unknown coral species. One thing was clear though, it appeared to be biological.
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The Investigation Begins
The orb was collected and sent to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for further examination. Even in the lab, the object refused to give up its secrets.
“We work on hundreds of different samples and I suspected that our routine processes would clarify the mystery,” Allen Collins, zoologist and director of NOAA Fisheries’ National Systematics Laboratory, said in a statement.
“But this turned into a special case that required focused efforts and the expertise of several different individuals. This was a complex mystery that required morphological, genetic, deep-sea and bioinformatics expertise to solve.”
The Truth Behind The Orb
Scientists from NOAA and the Smithsonian studied its structure and ran DNA tests. They found the orb was made of fibrous material and had a layered surface packed with cnidocytes, explosive stinging cells found in jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.
Further genome sequencing revealed the object was genetically almost identical to Relicanthus daphneae, a rare deep-sea cnidarian.
The “golden orb” was actually a remnant of dead cells from the base of a giant deep-sea anemone.
“So often in deep ocean exploration, we find these captivating mysteries, like the ‘golden orb,’” said William Mowitt, acting director of NOAA Ocean Exploration.
