Top 20 Strangest Things Found in the Universe

Not everything in space is quite as it seems. Discovered in 1950, Hoag’s Object was originally thought to be something else: a nebula. But further studies determined it’s actually much grander than that: it’s a rare ring galaxy with an unusually well-structured, circular nature. What’s perplexing is that the shapes of the large majority of galaxies (as we know them) are either elliptical, irregular, or spiral. But Hoag’s Object is a different breed. While there are other galaxies with a bright detached ring of stars, none of them can parallel Hoag’s Object in terms of symmetry. Hence it’s known as the most perfect ring galaxy out there. It’s the rarest of the rare.

In theory, each particle of matter - a fundamental physical aspect of the universe - has a corresponding antiparticle of antimatter, which has an opposite charge. What makes antimatter a fascinating phenomenon, though, is that it isn’t even close to being as ubiquitous as matter. An ongoing puzzle in cosmology and particle physics deals with why the Big Bang seemingly didn’t create equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But, ultimately, it’s a good thing for us regular matter beings that it didn’t. A collision between particles of regular and antimatter results in mutual annihilation. Everything involved, in effect, destroys itself. So, although we know it’s out there, it’s a blessing that antimatter isn’t everywhere.

Hypothetically, if you were able to pump up a rugby ball to the size of a dwarf planet, it’d resemble something pretty close to Haumea. This celestial object’s unique shape can be attributed to its rapid rotation. In fact, it's one of the fastest spinning large objects in our entire solar system. So much so that a day on Haumea is only around 4 hours long. In 2017, scientists added to our knowledge of this dwarf planet’s distinctive nature. After watching Haumea pass in front of a star, they detected that it sports some rings. This was the first discovery of a ring system for a trans-Neptunian object and also the first for a dwarf planet.

Neutron stars are just plain strange in and of themselves. But, in 2018, extended infrared light surrounding one, in particular, was something that we’d truly never seen before. According to research, the object in question belongs to a group of 7 neutron stars that are hotter than they seemingly should be based on astronomical and astrophysical knowledge. Possible explanations for the infrared light that swirls around it, then, include there potentially being a sort of dusty disk encircling the star. If not, then the object could be what’s known as a pulsar wind nebula. Whatever the case may be, this discovery gets added to our ever-growing list of spectacular glowing phenomena in the night sky.

These are no ordinary bubbles. The Fermi Bubbles, which emerge rather symmetrically from below and above the center of our Milky Way galaxy, are two celestial regions that emit bright bubble-shaped gamma rays. From a groundbreaking observation in 2010, we learned that this bizarre structure stretches for approximately 50,000 light years. The origin of the bubbles isn’t fully understood, but it’s widely believed that they were caused by the Sagittarius A-star black hole - anchoring at the center of the Milky Way. Discovering that the plane of our galaxy glows in this manner was both a surprising and awesome finding, reshaping what we thought we knew.

There are many stars that might be described as unusual or unpredictable, but Boyajian's Star (otherwise known as Tabby’s Star) is an especially notable case. Its extreme short-term fluctuations in brightness are again bizarre, and almost inexplicable. From time to time it dims up to 22 percent, which is basically unheard of relative to other known stars. While various hypotheses as to how this is possible have been put forth, this on-and-off, irregular light show in space has never been fully explained. Even if there were some kind of complex dust cloud involved, which has been theorized, its source and persistence is unknown.

Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs, are a bewildering space phenomenon. They can last a few seconds, but often only appear for milliseconds at a time. Nearly all of what’s been detected have originated from outside of our galaxy; from beyond the realms of the Milky Way. What makes FRBs even more unusual, though, is the unfathomable amount of energy that they release - at times more than what the sun provides across multiple days. What’s more, some have been found to repeat in possible patterns. One of the most peculiar, known as FRB 121102, regularly bursts back into repetitive life - as if on a timer. The origin and cause for that (and for all FRBs) is up for debate. Their patterns and intensity are a continued head-scratcher.

It’s not every day that we have interstellar objects passing through our cosmic neighborhood. But that’s what ’Oumuamua, which is generally believed to be a comet, did in 2017. In fact, this was the first ever confirmed interstellar object detected in the solar system. Estimates indicate that it had been roaming through our galaxy for hundreds of millions of years before it journeyed very close to us - moving between Mercury and Venus, and cruising around the sun. ‘Oumuamua’s highly elongated shape is another reason why it’s captured so much attention. It’s a strange-looking thing, cigar-like in appearance… and some have even suggested that it looks more artificial than it does natural.

Generally speaking, these are the brightest known objects in the universe. A quasar is the glowing core of a galaxy powered by a mass-swallowing supermassive black hole. One quasar in particular, known as 3C 273, has an estimated luminosity that is trillions of times that of the Sun. It’s also an approximate 100 times brighter than our entire galaxy is as a whole. In short, what happens here is the supermassive black hole core at the heart of each quasar gobbles up mass from a surrounding accretion disc of gas and dust. It’s a high-energy meal, though, with the blinding lights representing the incredible result.

The most magnetic objects in the cosmos are magnetars, which are a specific form of neutron star. They form following the collapse of stars that are (or were) significantly larger than our sun, and remain (for the most part) a bit of a mystery. What we do know is that, in comparison to the Earth’s magnetism, these astrophysical marvels have trillions of times greater magnetic pull. They’re so powerful that the magnetic stress they generate within themselves is believed to cause starquakes. What’s perhaps even weirder and even more unexpected, then, is that magnetars are also quite small, relatively speaking. In some cases, they’re about 12 miles in diameter.

Sure… after super-tiny super-magnets, just lots of water could seem a little tame. But this isn't your typical cloud. This is the oldest and largest collection of H2O in the known universe, containing roughly 140 trillion times the amount of water than is in Earth’s oceans. This astronomical mass of vapor is estimated to be 12 billion years old, is roughly 12 billion light years away from Earth, and it encircles a supermassive black hole and quasar. It’s the aforementioned high energy that’s spewing out of the quasar that heats the water cloud and allows it to take on a vapor form.

The name “pillars of creation” is actually specifically the title of a photograph taken by the Hubble Telescope in 1995. This stunning image captures a colossal gas and dust cloud in an elephant trunk formation as it swirls about forming new stars, while simultaneously being destroyed by the shockwaves of a neighboring supernova. Though it’s a breathtaking snapshot of creation within our universe, the sad truth is that the pillars of creation are already gone. They likely ceased to exist some 6 or 7,000 years ago, but based on the speed of light, we have roughly 1,000 years left to enjoy the sight before it disappears for good.

You might think that a star, a.k.a. a giant ball of fire, couldn’t possibly be cold. But, our universe yet again does the seemingly impossible, because cold stars certainly do exist. Otherwise known as “brown dwarfs,” they aren’t large enough to ever achieve proper fusion, but they still captivate scientists. Without fusion, they typically have much lower temperatures and are much lower energy, and therefore are only detected via non-visible, infrared light. They’re pretty common, though. In 2014, a small brown dwarf was discovered 7.2 light-years away; it holds the record as the coldest known brown dwarf with temperatures falling between -54 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit. And that’s chilly, even for these guys.

In short, this is one seriously massive dust cloud. It covers 150 light years of space, but honestly, that’s far from the most remarkable thing about this odd space entity. Found 390 light years from the center of the Milky Way, this particularly dense molecular cloud’s real claim to fame is a chemical compound found there. The cloud has amounts of ethyl formate, which is actually the chemical compound that makes raspberries taste the way they do. It’s also what makes rum smell the way it does. As far as we know there’s no actual rum up there, but Sagittarius B2 still goes down as one of the more unusually sensory galactic locales.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of a brush with dry ice, you know it burns. But, roughly 30 light years from the sun sits a unique exoplanet known as Gliese 436 b, where something similar is seemingly happening all the time. Astronomers are amazed by its apparently contradictory “burning ice” surface. Due to its close proximity to its own star, this exoplanet’s temperatures exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit. So, considering water typically evaporates at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the detected presence of ice here is… puzzling. The leading theory is that what Gliese 436 b really has is a remarkably dense form of water, improbably held together by a combination of the heat plus extreme gravitational pressure.

Not everything on our list so far would necessarily qualify as a terrifying thing from space, but hypervelocity stars do ramp up the scare factor. Broadly, these are stars that travel extremely quickly. A group of four astrophysicists proved their existence back in 2005. But, in 2019, their true character shone through, when one of them was found to be moving at a clip of roughly 4 million miles per hour. Such speeds can perhaps only be explained by one thing: hypervelocity stars are somehow ejected from a black hole. Something like a cosmic catapult which, if one were to hit us, would spell instant doom. But, there’s no need to overworry. It’s said that the chances of a collision with a hypervelocity star are vanishingly small.

While our local sun is awesome and all, it’s pretty standard as far as stars go. There are some far more interesting variations out there, many of which we’ve already covered. But neutron stars are arguably the most notable of all. Though they are small, they’re incredibly dense. When they’re made, neutron stars rotate quickly, sometimes spinning as fast as 43,000 times per minute. Their conditions ultimately combine so that they exert a gravitational force some 200 billion times what’s felt on earth. They’re birthed from the remnant cores of huge stars that have previously gone supernova and collapsed… but from those beginnings they turn into a true and almost unparalleled force of nature.

Welcome to 55 Cancri e, also known as the planet Janssen. Situated more than 40 light years away from Earth, it is a bit of a trek… but with a mass roughly 8 times that of earth, and with perhaps one third of that being carbon (and possibly, probably made of diamond) it would be one hell of a payday for whoever could make the trip. If you’ve got your diamond cutters ready though, just keep in mind that temperatures on the surface reach an estimated 3,100 Fahrenheit. The extreme heat is one of the reasons why it’s figured that diamond should have formed here, but it also means that this coveted gem is likely untouchable. Nevertheless, Janssen’s overall value has been estimated at 26.9 nonillion dollars. That’s 26.9 and then 30 zeroes.

Dark matter is proof that our universe actually is stranger than science fiction. As the name suggests, dark matter is a kind of, well, matter. But it’s also not something you can see to believe. Dark matter is invisible, since it doesn’t give off light or reflect it. In fact, it doesn’t interact with light, at all. Since, then, we’re unable to perceive it directly, we monitor it indirectly, via the gravitational effects that it apparently has on regular matter nearby. Basically, we know it exists because of clues that show themselves through regular, observable matter. What’s truly crazy, though, is that while normal, observable matter only accounts for between 4% and 5% of the known universe, dark matter makes up 27%. And the rest is dark energy. Unsettling, but also pretty cool.

The original, but still the best. And, while mysterious, we do of course know a little about black holes. Their gravitational force is so powerful that even light is pulled in. And since light can’t escape from them, black holes can’t be seen - in the traditional sense. The outer edge of a black hole is called the “event horizon,” while its very center is known as the “singularity.” Move past the event horizon and, quite simply, you’re not coming out again. Not even if you’re just a tiny particle of light. Not all black holes are created equal, however. Stellar black holes likely form when large stars collapse, that much is true. But scientists are still unsure as to how supermassive black holes form; the ones that pin the center of most major galaxies. The eternal kicker is that these things operate outside of our normal conceptions of space and time. And, ultimately, there’s nothing weirder than that!

Which space phenomena are you most interested in? Which do you find the strangest of all? Let us know in the comments!