It would certainly be comforting to think that, at this point, we have a pretty good understanding of how the planet works, but then a purple blob just shows up in the ocean and scientists are totally baffled, making us realize just how much stuff out there remains totally mysterious (and possibly scary?)
The science research ship E/V Nautilus was out doing some important science stuff in the Pacific Ocean this week when, as National Geographic reports, they encountered something pretty weird. A glowing, purple blob, hanging out in the deep sea near the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary.
As you can hear in the video below, the scientists were stumped. After taking time to consider the weird… thing for a while, they decide to scoop it up and take it home with them to study. A remotely controlled vehicle was sent out to collect the specimen, but only after fighting off a crab that apparently got the same idea.
Here are some brainstorms that the researchers suggested it could, maybe, possibly be: a small octopus, an egg sac, a salp or, most likely, a new type of pleurobranch.
Oh, you don’t know about pleurobranchs? They’re related to soft sea slugs or, as NatGeo describes them, “Snail kin whose ancestors shrugged off the shell millions of years ago, they are just skin, muscle and organs sliding on trails of slime across ocean floors and coral heads the world over.”
Next big seafood trend? Maybe not.
Regardless, while pleurobranch is one possible explanation, it remains unconfirmed and could be something totally new and unknown. And so far, nobody has come out to deny that the blob was actually an alien that crash landed during that recent rocket reentry, so that’s totally still a possibility, too.