66. Dark Matter-Less Galaxy
Year Found: 2018
Who Found It: Allan Sandage and Bruno Binggeli
Location: Ultra Defuse Galaxy
Dark matter is known as the substance which comprises about 85 percent of all matter in the universe. According to researchers, dark matter is everywhere, which is why it was surprising to the community when a new galaxy containing barely any dark matter was discovered in March 2018.
Dark Matter-Less Galazy ©Asar Studios/Alamy
The galaxy was discovered by Allan Sandage and Bruno Binggeli in 1984 and it got named Ultra Defuse Galaxy. It is located 65 million light-years away from Earth, and it is an extremely low luminosity galaxy. In 2018 it was confirmed that these types of galaxies do contain both extremes of dark matter content.
67. Hyperion’s Moon
Year Found: 1848
Who Found It: William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond, and William Lassell
Location: Moon of Saturn
One of the strangest moons in the solar system is surely Saturn’s Hyperion. The pumice-stone-like irregular rock contains numerous craters and it is charged with specific static electricity that is flowing out into space. Hyperion was discovered by William Cranch Bond and his son George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848.
Hyperion’s Moon ©elRoce/Shutterstock
Saturn has 83 moons confirmed moons, but Hyperion was the first non-round moon to be discovered. The moon was named after the Greek god Hyperion, the Titan of watchfulness and observation. Like most of Saturn’s moons, Hyperion is also mostly composed of water ice and only a small amount of rock.
68. A Guiding Neutrino
Year Found: 2017
Who Found It: IceCube Neutrino Observatory
Location: Earth
On September 22, 2017, a single, high-energy neutrino struck Earth. This in itself isn’t that odd as physicists at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica see this type of occurrence at least once a month.
A Guiding Neutrino @TouchTEK_PRD/Twitter
However, this neutrino was special as it arrived on Earth with enough information about its origin so that astronomers could point their telescopes in the direction it came from. The conclusion they came to is that it had been flung at Earth 4 billion years ago by a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy.
69. A Living Fossil
Year Found: 2016
Who Found It: W. M. Keck Observatory
Location: DGSAT I
In 2016 the galaxy DGSAT I was discovered but the amount of light it gives off was much lower compared to other galaxies. Soon after. researchers have discovered a “living fossil” in this galaxy which was certainly an unusual occurrence.
A Living Fossil @retrobr/Pinterest
DGSAT I is an ultra-diffuse galaxy which means that its stars are spread out so thinly that it is barely visible—even though it is as big as a galaxy like the Milky Way. Scientists quickly noticed that DGSAT I is all alone which isn’t common for ultra-diffuse galaxies, which is why they concluded that it got formed just 1 billion or so years after the Big Bang—making it a living fossil.
70. Infrared Neutron Star
Year Found: 2018
Who Found It: Hubble Space Telescope
Location: Pulsar RX J0806.4-4123
When a regular star dies, a neutron star—which is a very dense object—is born. Usually, neutron stars emit radio waves or X-rays, but not the Infrared Neutron Star. In September 2018, researchers discovered that a neutron star 800 light-years away from Earth is emitting a long stream of infrared light.
Infrared Neutron Star @michael799/Pinterest
Scientists believe that the occurrence is a result of the disk of material that originally formed the neutron star, settling back around the star after the explosion. However, not enough research has yet been done on the matter.
71. Vega
Year Found: 1850
Who Found It: William Bond and John Adams Whipple
Location: Lyra
In July 1850, Vega became the first star (apart from the Sun) to be photographed. The image was taken by William Bond and John Adams Whipple at the Harvard College Observatory. Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It is located only 25 light-years from Earth.
Vega @paulaherediacba/Pinterest
In the summer, Vega is visible in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere. The star is about 450 million years old—and it was the North Star several thousand years ago, and it will become the North Star again in about 12,000 years.
72. MY Camelopardalis
Year Found: 1612/13
Who Found It: Unknown
Location: Camelopardalis
While two stars touching each other doesn’t sound possible—it does exist. The binary system MY Camelopardalis is exactly that, two hot blue O-type stars that are rubbing against each other as they are orbiting around a common point. Both stars share a common envelope which is the gas that contains a binary star system.
MY Camelopardalis @davidhectorcab/Youtube
MY Camelopardalis is the brightest star in Alicante 1 open cluster, and astronomers believe that it is about to merge into a single supermassive star. When this happens, a spectacular explosion of energy is expected.
73. Star With Spiral Arms
Year Found: 2011
Who Found It: Carol Grady, astronomer of Eureka Scientific
Location: Lupus
The star SAO 206462 is unusual as it is surrounded by a circumstellar disc of gas and clearly defined spiral arms. In itself, spiral arms aren’t unusual when it comes to entire galaxies, but the SAO 206462 star has a set of its own—each of which is spanning 14 billion miles across.
Star With Spiral Arms ©NASA Universe/Flickr
The SAO 206462 star is located about 460 light-years away from Earth, and researchers believe that the arms are related to the existence of planets inside the disk of gas that surrounds the star. The disk of gas is twice as wide as the orbit of Pluto.
74. HV 2112
Year Found: 1908
Who Found It: Henrietta Leavitt
Location: Small Magellanic Cloud
HV 2112 is a giant star with a separate neutron star buried inside of it. Researchers believe that the star was originally a binary star system until one star “swallowed” the other. The star was first discovered as a variable star in 1908, by Henrietta Leavitt.
HV 2112 ©ESA/Hubble/Wikimedia
Until 2018, HV 2112 was considered to be a Thorne–Żytkow object (also known as a hybrid star), but today, HV 2112 is believed to be an asymptotic giant branch star— a star that appears as a bright red giant with a luminosity thousand times greater than the Sun’s.
75. UY Scuti
Year Found: 1860
Who Found It: German astronomers at the Bonn Observatory
Location: Scutum
UY Scuti is a red supergiant star situated in the constellation Scutum. As of writing. it is considered one of the largest known stars as it has a radius about 1,700 times larger than the Sun (which has a radius about 110 times larger than the Earth). In volume, UY Scuti is 5 billion times bigger than the Sun.
UY Scuti ©2MASS/Wikimedia
This giant red star is located 9,500 light-years from Earth and if it was to be placed at the center of the Solar System, its photosphere would engulf the orbit of Jupiter. Because of the location of UY Scuti deep within the Milky Way disc, it is believed that it is a metal-rich star.
76. Dyson Sphere
Year Found: Freeman Dyson
Who Found It: 1960
Location: N/A
The Dyson Sphere is, essentially, a gigantic structure that harvests the energy of stars. For now, the Dyson Sphere is hypothetical. Technically, this megastructure was developed by Olaf Stapledon for Star Maker, his science fiction novel from 1937, but, in 1960, scientist Freeman Dyson expounded upon Stapledon’s idea.
Dyson Sphere ©Kevin Gill/Wikimedia
The Dyson Structure is a thought experiment that entails a megastructure that totally encompasses a star, capturing a large percentile of its solar output. Theoretically, the Dyson Sphere is possible, but the system is, as of now, far beyond humanity’s engineering capabilities. We don’t have the resources necessary to transmit, maintain, and obtain a complete Dyson system. Maybe one day.
77. The Great Attractor
Year Found: 1970s
Who Found It: The Parkes Radio Telescope
Location: Laniakea Supercluster
This gravitational anomaly is known as the Great Attractor. It is located within intergalactic space, and it is the central point of the Laniakea Supercluster. The Great Attractor has a mass that is millions of times more massive than that of the Milky Way. The Great Attractor lies beyond the Zone of Avoidance, so we have trouble seeing it.
The Great Attractor ©ESA/Hubble Space Telescope & NASA/Wikimedia
The Great Attractor can be “seen” by how it moves through galaxies hundreds of millions of light years across the universe. Right now, this gravitational anomaly is moving towards the Shapley Supercluster. Since it was discovered in the 1970s, the Great Attractor has fascinated and puzzled scientists. Around four-hundred galaxies are slowly moving towards this gravitational hotspot, including our own. We have around thirteen billion years before we get sucked into the Great Attractor.
78. A New Exoplanet
Year Found: 2022
Who Found It: The University of California
Location: 700 Light Years Away
The Webb Telescope is one of the most powerful telescopes in the world, and it found yet another amazing discovery in late 2022. Astronomers focused the observatory on a new exoplanet (which means a planet that is beyond our solar system) called WASP-39b. This hot, gas giant is tightly orbiting a star around 700 lightyears away.
A New Exoplanet @NASA/Twitter
Researchers also found something unique, a full array of atoms and molecules within the exoplanet’s clouds. Some of these molecules are interacting, and Webb’s ability to detect this means that we could be one step closer to determining whether worlds are able to potentially harbor life. On Earth, our atmospheric chemistry has created the ozone layer, which is vital to life.
79. Faces On Mars
Year Found: 1976
Who Found It: NASA/JPL
Location: Cydonia
Cydonia is a region of Mars, the Red Planet, that has attracted scientific and popular interest. Cydonia contains a complex array of plains, small hills, and mesas, but one of its most unique features is its faces. The faces were first imaged by NASA’s Viking orbiters.
Faces on Mars ©Viking 1, NASA/Wikimedia
These features have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, much like a human face, and they have fascinated people since they were unveiled in the seventies. Though it is probably just a coincidence, it is still interesting to see the way Cydonia has taken shape.
80. Fomalhaut B
Year Found: 2008
Who Found It: Paul Kalas
Location: Piscis Austrinus Constellation
Fomalhaut b was one of the first exoplanets ever uncovered, and it was also one of the first to be undiscovered, too. Also named Dagon, this candidate planet disappeared in 2020. This suggests that this planet wasn’t a planet at all. Instead, it may have been an expanding dust cloud that formed after the collision of two large, icy bodies.
Fomalhaut b ©NASA/Wikimedia
Discovered by Paul Kalas in 2008, Fomalhaut b had an orbital period of 1,700 years. It was detected through direct imaging, and its location was, before it disappeared, within the Piscis Austrinus Constellation, around twenty-five light years away.