there are endless questions about the universe but there are some that are more mysterious than others from a giant void to unknown objects in space here are the 20 most mysterious space discoveries number 20 the giant void the void an empty space that's usually how we Define the word void but of course this word has a different meaning when defining something from the universe there are several voids in the universe these are patches of nothingness where galaxies if any are few and far between most of the time only stretches of Darkness exist in these voids
now among the largest we've discovered so far is the bootes void this void was discovered in 1981 and it spans about 330 million light years across if you're having a hard time imagining just how enormous it is it's massive enough to theoretically fit thousands of Milky w again the word void means something entirely different when discussing the universe you see the bootes void isn't completely empty within this vast nothingness there are about 60 galaxies that we know of considering the size of the Void that's like finding a few grains of sand on an entire Beach
scientists call these galaxies Island universes isolated in a sea of emptiness what's astounding or unsettling is that these voids dominate the volume of the univers Universe yet they contribute less than a tenth of the universe's total mass at least theoretically speaking but where do these voids come from well they were formed billions of years ago they started as something small until they Clump together and spread and as scientists suggest these voids will soon enough consume the entire galaxy if it provides any comfort however scientists believe that this might happen in the distant future before we
go on like this video smash the Subscribe button and click the notification Bell right now number 19 the great attractor the Milky Way is moving like most things in the universe you see there's an unseen and unknown force on the other side of the Milky Way that's pulling us like a magnet it's hard to imagine but as our planet is orbiting the Sun our sun is orbiting the center of the Milky Way and together we're hurdling through the cosmos at millions of kilometers per hour but where exactly are we going and what exactly is pulling
us well we don't know all we know is that our galaxy as well as other nearby galaxies are being pulled toward a region of space about 150 million light years away because of how clueless we are about what it is we can only name it the great attractor unfortunately it's hidden from our view by the zone of avoidance a region filled with Cosmic dust and stars from our own Galaxy that blocks our sight line thanks to our technology however scientists have studied the great attractor by observing its gravitational influence on nearby galaxies and using wavelengths
of light like X-rays and radio waves you might think how can something invisible have such a massive pull the answer lies in Mass the great attractor is believed to be a colossal concentration of mass including clusters of galaxies and dark matter which I'll talk about later so stay tuned for that here's where it gets interesting recent Studies have revealed that the great attractor is actually part of an even larger structure known as the lenia supercluster this supercluster is a gigantic Cosmic web home to our Milky Way and about 100,000 other galaxies despite the increase in
our understanding of this giant we're yet to discover everything about it number 18 1991 VG in November 1991 the Cold War was reaching its end and in the midst of it all James Scotty from the University of Arizona spotted something bizarre this object later named 1991 VG was initially considered just another asteroid but soon its unusual characteristics had scientists scratching their heads 1991 VG is only about the size of a small house measuring somewhere between 16 and 32 ft in diameter what's bizarre is that 1991 VG has an orbit around the Sun that closely resembles
Earth's making it an earthlike object in terms of its path through space its size and behavior are perplexing and we don't exactly know what 1991 VG is its brightness fluctuates in a way that's not typical for an asteroid this led to all sorts of speculation including theories that it could be an Alien Probe or space junk from a previous mission that somehow got Lost in Space the idea of 1991 VG being an Alien Probe captured imaginations and even made some wonder if we had evidence of extraterrestrial technology drifting through our solar system however the more
likely explanation and far less sci-fi is that it might be a piece of space debris from a previous space mission possibly a spent rocket booster or a lost satellite but given that its Discovery predates many of the objects we've sent into space that could return in such an orbit this Theory also has its complications another theory suggests that 1991 VG could be a quasi Moon a natural object captured by Earth's gravity these objects can enter into a coord orbital motion with Earth making them temporary mini moons this theory is supported by the object's earthlike orbit
and could explain its unusual brightness variations due to tumbling or spinning as it stands the true nature of 1991 VG remains a bit of a mystery number 17 Saturn's mysterious moon Peggy it sounds like a nickname you'd give to a pet but Peggy is actually Saturn's moon but perhaps calling Peggy a moon can be quite a stretch as it's more of a moonlet or a moon in the making Peggy was only known recently in 2013 By astronomer Carl Murray and his team in the Cassini spacecraft Peggy resides in the outer edges of Saturn's magnificent Rings
specifically in the a-ring the outermost of the planet's large bright Rings scientists first spotted this small object due to an odd disturbance at the edge of Saturn's ring a kind of cosmic Ripple suggesting something was there exerting its gravitational pull Peggy is Tiny estimated to be just about half a mile in diameter however this tiny moonlet represents a live case study of how moons around gas giants like Saturn might form aggregating material from the Rings and growing over time unfortunately Peggy remains elusive its small size and a dynamic environment of Saturn's rings make it challenging
to observe directly after its initial detection astronomers have had difficulty tracking it leading to more questions than answers is Peggy still there slowly accumulating mass or did it break apart unable to coales into a full-fledged Moon the answer eludes us to this day number 16 neutrinos imagine the universe is filled with invisible super tiny particles constantly zipping through everything including you and me your dog literally everything at nearly the speed of light these are neutrinos they're so tiny and Elusive that billions pass pass through your body every second but you don't feel a thing now
you might be wondering why neutrinos are so important and why they deserve our attention you see neutrinos play a crucial role in our understanding of the universe for several reasons for one they're a byproduct of nuclear reactions like those happening in the Sun and other stars as well as in nuclear processes on Earth studying neutrinos can help us understand how stars shine and how the elements that make up the universe are formed here's why it's intriguing neutrinos are mysterious because they have mass but it's so tiny that scientists are still trying to measure it precisely
there was a groundbreaking discovery because for a long time neutrinos were thought to be massless their mass is a vital clue in the puzzle of the universe's overall mass and how galaxies hold together plus neutrinos come in three different flavors yes they're actually called flavors and can morph from one flavor to another as they travel a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation this Behavior challenges and enriches our understanding of the laws of physics number 15 Sagittarius A of course a space video wouldn't be complete if black holes weren't mentioned right this is one of the most
bizarre black holes in the universe but first off what exactly is a black hole well it's a region in space where the gravitational pole is so strong due to a lot of mass being compacted into a very small area that nothing can escape from it including light now Sagittarius A is not just any black hole but an enormous one and by enormous I mean it's Millions to billions of times more massive than our sun scientists estimate that Sagittarius A has a mass about 4 million times that of the sun imagine that enormous size being squeezed
into an area smaller than our solar system this giant is just 26,000 Lighty years away from us that's far but it's close enough to allow astronomers to study the behavior of a super massive black hole up close and understand how it influences the Galaxy around us the way stars orbit around Sagittarius A has been crucial in confirming its existence and measuring its massive pole one of the most thrilling aspects of studying Sagittarius A is watching how it interacts with its Cosmic neighborhood when gas and dust get too close they're heated to extreme temperatures and accelerated
to incredible speeds emitting powerful radiation before being swallowed up these events are like Cosmic fireworks shows giving us glimpses into the Ferocious power of black holes but to this day a lot of mystery surrounds this black hole number 14 fast radio burst burst discovered in 2007 FBS are intense bursts of radio waves that last a few milliseconds yet release as much energy as the sun does in nearly a day or more their flashes of energy so powerful that they can travel across galaxies and reach our planet the mystery of FBS lies not just in their
incredible power but also in their unpredictability and the vast distances they travel these Cosmic signals have been traced back to galaxies billions of light years away which means the events causing them are phenomenally energetic but what could possibly produce such powerful brief signals theories about the origins of FBS are as varied and colorful as the imagination of scientists pondering them some suggest these bursts come from magnetars highly magnetic neutron stars that are the remnants of supernova these Cosmic lighthouses could be spinning and flaring in ways that create F frbs others speculate about Connections to black
holes or even more exotic phenomena such as cosmic strings and of course no mystery would be complete without a wild card some have even suggested that FBS could be signals from Advanced alien civilizations however the truth behind the frb remains a mystery to this day number 13 Major G Gord Cooper UFO sightings Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr was one of the original Seven astronauts in Project Mercury the firstman space effort by the United States he has many achievements to his name but a little known fact about him is his bizarre experience in space in 1957 he
was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base and according to Cooper he observed a strange saucer-like aircraft that landed on a dry lake bed and then took off at incredible speeds he also claimed that the event was photographed and the images were clear enough to detail the Craft's extended landing gear however these photographs have become the stuff of Legend as they were allegedly sent to the Pentagon and never released to the public but that's not the end of it during his Mercury Atlas 9 space flight in May 1963 where he orbited the Earth 22 times Cooper
reported seeing a green object approaching a spacecraft this time there is less detail about the case Gordon Cooper was a highly trained astronaut a man of science and a credible witness which makes his reports fascinating and perplexing he publicly spoke about his UFO sightings advocating for the government to acknowledge and investigate these phenomena while shrouded in doubt his claims are among the things that conspiracists believe number 12 himiko Cloud discovered in 2009 through the combined powers of the Subaru telescope in Hawaii and the x-ray vision of the Chandra x-ray Observatory himiko is named after a
legendary queen of ancient Japan this massive blob of gas extends over 55,000 light years across and it's about half the size of our own Galaxy this means this blob easily dwarfs our planet himo existed when the universe was in its infancy a mere 800 million years after the big bang and according to our understanding of cosmic history structures of this size and complexity should not have existed so early on the universe was still cooling down and galaxies were starting to form himiko's sheer size and Luminosity throw a cosmic curveball at astronomers challenging preconceived notions about
the early universe's Evolution one of the biggest questions is its source of power what makes himo Shin so brightly in the early Universe there are a few theories some scientists speculate that it could be a massive galaxy in the making a colossal Nursery Where Stars Are Born at an unprecedented rate others suggest it might result from an enormous collision between young galaxies a cosmic mashup lighting up the early Universe another mystery is the Cloud's composition the early Universe was mostly hydrogen and helium but himiko might contain heavier Elements which are typically forged in the hearts
of stars this hints set a more complex chemical makeup than expected for such an ancient object suggesting that star formation and Galactic processes were already well underway number 11 the Black Knight satellite according to Legend the Black Knight satellite is an alien spacecraft that has been orbiting Earth for around 13,000 years Yes you heard that right 13,000 years this mysterious object is said to be of Unknown Origin with capabilities beyond our understanding silently watching us from the darkness of space the story of the Black Knight is fueled speculation conspiracy theories an intense debate for decades
the origin of the Black Knight Legend is a bit all over the place to say the least one of the earliest accounts dates back to the 1950s when newspapers reported that the US Air Force had detected a satellite orbiting Earth what made this so mysterious well it was before the launch of Sputnik the first human-made satellite which means this object couldn't have been ours however the lines get blurry astronauts and space enthusiasts reported strange sightings and unexplained signals fueling the fire of conspiracy theories perhaps the most famous piece of evidence cited by Believers is a
series of photographs taken during the sts-88 space shuttle mission in 1998 these images show A peculiar object in space which some claim is the elusive Black Knight the 1950s satellite detections are often attributed to misinterpretations of natural objects such as asteroids the mysterious signals it's likely the result of earth-based sources or natural Cosmic phenomena and the famous sts-88 photos most experts agree that the object is not an ancient alien satellite but space debris possibly a thermal blanket lost during the mission despite the logical explanation science provides the legend of the Black Knight continues to Captivate
imaginations number 10 Saturn's rings now we're all familiar with Saturn the sixth planet from our sun if one thing can be considered common knowledge about this planet it's the Rings it has Saturn's rings are one of the most spectacular sites in our solar system made primarily of ice particles mixed with dust and rock these Rings orbit around Saturn creating a stunning visual spectacle but every 14 to 15 years stargazers on Earth experien something extraordinary Saturn's rings seem to vanish this phenomena is linked to the tilt of Saturn's axis and its orbit around the sun Saturn
is tilted on its axis by about 27° similar to our Earth's Tilt gives us our Seasons but unlike Earth Saturn takes about 29 .5 Earth years to complete one orbit around the sun this long journey means that the orientation of Saturn's rings changes gradually in relation to Earth leading to these fascinating periods when the Rings seem to vanish it's not a complete mystery but an interesting phenomenon nonetheless number nine face on Mars in 1976 the Viking one Orbiter part of NASA's Viking program to Mars was busy snapping photos of the Martian surface looking for potential
Landing sites for its sister Lander among the thousands of images being back to Earth was one curious photograph showing what look like a face this came to be known as the face of Mars this feature shows a face with eyes a nose and a mouth carved into the Martian Hills as if by the hands of an unknown civilization the image sparked a wildfire of theories ranging from ancient Martian civilizations to alien activity with people around the globe wondering if we had finally stumbled upon proof of extraterrestrial life it seems like an intriguing phenomenon but there's
a logical explanation behind this the face on Mars is an excellent example of paradia a psychological phenomenon where the human brain is wired to recognize familiar patterns like faces in random or ambiguous images it's the same reason we might see shapes in clouds or a man on the moon even so many continueed to believe this face is evidence of alien activity on Mars number eight Jupiter's Great cold spot Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system known for its swirling storms and vibrant bands however it's known for its bizarre cold spot using the very
large Telescope yes that's the actual name of it scientists discovered a cold spot in its upper atmosphere specifically in the planet's Northern Hemisphere but wait how can a planet known for its extreme heat and turbulent atmosphere have a cold spot apparently it can this region is significantly cooler than its surroundings with temperatures about 200° C or 360° F cooler than the surrounding areas to this day this spot remains shrouded in mystery number seven story Musgrave and space snakes story Musgrave is as amazing and as unique of an individual as his name he's an astronaut a
poet and a surgeon however he's known for one claim space snakes during a SPAC shuttle mission musra reported seeing something extraordinary and baffling white floating objects outside the spacecraft that he described as resembling snakes in space musgrave's description of space snakes has been a topic of much speculation and Intrigue could these have been extraterrestrial creatures undiscovered phenomena or perhaps something more mundane that's the thing we remain clueless about it to this day number six Dark Matter dark matter is something that makes up about 27% of the universe and yet it doesn't emit absorb or reflect
any light and remains completely invisible you see when astronomers look at galaxies they notice that they're moving in ways that defy the laws of gravity the culprit is dark matter the only reason we know this thing exists is because of its gravitational pull on the things we can see Dark Matter holds galaxies together as they spin and without it galaxies would be scattered and we most most likely wouldn't exist and yet despite the fact that it's among the most crucial things in the universe we aren't even close to understanding half of what it is number
five Tabby star nestled in a Milky Way over a thousand Lighty years away from Earth lies Tabby star it was just another Speck in the night sky until 2015 when scientists discovered something extraordinary unlike anything seen before the brightness of tabby star dipped in unpredictable in in dramatic ways sometimes by as much as 22% for reference that's considered bizarre behavior for a star one of the first and most Sensational explanations for this activity is that the Tabby star wasn't a star but an alien mega structure some even speculated that an advanced civilization could be building
a Dyson Sphere or a similar colossal structure around the star to capture its energy astronomers however have a more logical explanation for this Behavior astronomers proposed several natural explanations for the star's bizarre behavior one Theory suggested that a swarm of comets might have passed in front of the star locking its light another idea pointed to massive dust clouds from colliding or disintegrating planets there's even a theory about the star swallowing a planet causing temporary fluctuations in brightness to this day however the Tabby star remains a mysterious Enigma in the universe number four dark energy dark
energy is a mysterious Force that's pushing the universe apart in short it's making the universe expand but is it any different from Dark Matter unlike dark matter which clumps together and helps hold galaxies together dark energy is like an invisible energy field that permeates all of space pushing it to expand faster and faster Dark Matter acts to hold galaxies and clusters together through its gravitational pole without it most of the universe would fall apart with galaxies flying into the void on the other hand dark energy is the force stretching the fabric of space and accelerating
the universe's expansion from what we know Dark Energy makes up about 68% of the universe while Dark Matter accounts for about 27% that leaves a mere 5% for all the stars planets galaxies and everything else we can actually see or detect directly mindboggling isn't it despite knowing it exists scientists are still trying to figure out what Dark Energy actually is some theorize it might be the energy of space itself the vacuum energy others suggest new theories of gravity that could explain this Cosmic acceleration without the need for Dark Energy number three el pizaro el pizaro
officially known as 7968 ELP pizaro or 133 p/ El pizaro is a small body orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter it was discovered in 1979 and initially it was classified as just another asteroid among the millions in the belt however in 1996 something unexpected happened astronomers including one of its namesakes Eric elst observed it exhibiting comet-like Behavior complete with a tail now I know that doesn't sound exciting to most of us but astronomers find it intriguing typically asteroids are rocky bodies that orbit the Sun but don't have tails comets on the other
hand hand are icy bodies that when they approach the sun heat up and release gas and dust creating the distinctive tail that streams away from the Sun El pizaro however was sitting comfortably in the asteroid belt far from the Sun yet showing off a tail this Behavior led to it being categorized as a main belt Comet a rare hybrid that acts like an asteroid and a comet the main belt Comet status of el pizaro raises fascinating questions about the early solar system it suggests that there might be more icy bodies lurking in the asteroid belt
than previously thought offering clues about how water and other volatiles were distributed in the early solar system this could have significant implications for understanding the origins of water on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere in the solar system but why does el pizaro have a tail if it's so far from the Sun scientists believe its comet-like activity could be triggered by minor collisions with other objects exposing fresh ice beneath its surface when this ice vaporizes it releases dust and debris creating the tail else pizaro's dual identity challenges our traditional understanding of comets and asteroids
blurring the lines between these two categories this proves that despite how far we've reached in understanding the universe we have a long way to go number two Yang Le Way's knocking encounter this is the story of Yang Le way China's first astronaut and the Mysterious knock he heard while orbiting Earth yes it sounds like a short horror story right it All Began in 2003 when China launched the sheno 5 marking its debut in demand space flight with young Le wayi at the helm this mission was a Monumental step for China placing it among the elite
group of countries capable of sending humans into space as young Le wayi orbited our planet something unexpected and unscripted occurred he heard a knocking sound as if someone were tapping the outer Hall of the spacecraft with a wooden Hammer sounds horrifying doesn't it imagine you're alone in a spacecraft surrounded by the vacuum of space where sound as we know it can't travel and then you hear a knocking there's no one else on board and there's nowhere the sound could be coming from it's just you and something or someone knocking on your spacecraft young Le way
described the noise as neither coming from outside nor inside the spacecraft imagine his bewilderment the mix of curiosity and concern as he searched for the of this sound only to find nothing a miss the spacecraft's instruments showed no abnormalities and the mission continued without incident yet the knocking remained unexplained upon his return to Earth Yang's account of this Eerie experience prompted investigations and speculation scientists considered various explanations from the mundane to the extraordinary could it have been the expansion or contraction of the spacecraft's metal Hull as it moved from sunlight into Shadow was it debris
or micr meteorites colliding with the spacecraft or perhaps something else entirely something beyond our current understanding who knows and now it's time for today's topic what happened to the astronaut who was lost in space for 311 lonely days zero gravity the unknown one error away from Death these are enough to deter people from going to space sometimes however curiosity wins even the possibility of death perhaps that's why we can continued to try and explore space despite the risks one man experienced one of the most chilling things an astronaut could experience floating in space for 311
long days in the 1980s an astronaut began his first long duration space flight his first trip lasted 150 days and he decided he didn't get enough by December 1990 he made preparations to leave our planet once again it was on this mission that he became stranded in outer space for over 300 days almost a year in an environment where humans weren't meant to last with limited supplies and with no hope of returning he thought that it would be the end of him many believed his life would end in space but that ending is only true
for creepy pastas about him in the end he came back alive does this story sound familiar well that's because this is the story of the last Cosmonaut Sergey kirth number one soyu's 7 sighting the year was 1969 a pivotal moment in space history dominated by the Apollo 11 moon landing the Soviet Union continued its Ventures into the cosmos with a soyu program soyu 7 manned by an experienced crew was orbiting Earth when something extraordinary and unexplained happened as the crew of soyu 7 went about their tasks they reported seeing an object that defied their understanding
of what could and should exist in space descriptions vary but the consensus is that they observed a structure of incredible size and complexity unlike anything known to be human-made the crew described the object as a colossal angular structure accompanied by smaller objects that appeared to be maneuvering around it what makes the soyu 7 sighting so captivating is not just the sighting itself but the context and the individuals involved these were seasoned astronauts trained observers accustomed to the peculiarities of space the Soviet space program shrouded in secrecy offered little explanation or follow follow up to the
public this lack of information is only fueled speculation and curiosity about the sighting unlike the open nature of NASA's operations the Soviet Union's tight-lipped approach to its space Endeavors has left many questions unanswered do you know of any other space Mysteries we forgot to include if so feel free to share them in the comments down below also check out our other cool stuff showing up on the screen right now and I'll see you in the next video take care everybody