NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered a giant cosmic 'question mark' in space that has baffled scientists.
The team operating the telescope at the European Space Agency released an image in June that offered the most detailed look yet at two actively forming young stars located some 1470 light-years from Earth in the Vela Constellation. In the image, the stars, named Herbig-Haro 46/47, are seen surrounded by a disk of material that "feeds" them as they grow for millions of years.
However, just below the stars, in the background of the mesmerising deep-space picture, was an object that looked like a giant 'question mark' suspended in the night sky.
Take a look below:
It's unclear what the strange object might be. But according to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, which is responsible for JWST's operations, the most likely explanation is that the 'question mark' is actually a remote galaxy or pair of galaxies getting tangled in each other's gravitational pull.
"It is probably a distant galaxy, or potentially interacting galaxies. Their interactions may have caused the distorted question mark-shape," representatives of the STScI told Space.com.
The representatives explained that the objects' red colour indicates that whatever the object is, it is likely quite distant. It may even be the first time the object has been observed by humans, they added.
"This may be the first time we've seen this particular object," the representatives said, adding, "Additional follow-up would be required to figure out what it is with any certainty. Webb is showing us many new, distant galaxies, so there's a lot of new science to be done!"
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Separately, Matt Caplan, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University, told Space.com that the object might be two galaxies merging. "The two distinct features could easily be merging galaxies in the background, with the upper part of the question mark being part of a larger galaxy getting tidally disrupted," Mr Caplan said.
"Given the colour of some of the other background galaxies, this doesn't seem like the worst explanation. Despite how chaotic mergers are, double lobed objects with curvy tails extending away from them are very typical," he explained.
Meanwhile, the image showing the 'question mark' in deep space has gone viral on social media. While some users hilariously called it an "alien reaction", others came up with bizarre conspiracy theories.
"That's the alien's reaction to what we've been doing the last few years," wrote one user. "Forget the question mark for a second. I find it absolutely fascinating that this is a real small picture example of hundreds if not thousands of galaxies in outer space. Then within those galaxies are millions and billions of stars/planets. We would be fools to believe that there aren't more intelligent beings out there somewhere," said another.
