15 Most Mysterious Objects Discovered in Space

Discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, this elongated object accelerated away from the Sun without displaying a cometary tail. Researchers still debate its exact origin and frozen composition.

Kepler telescope observations revealed erratic dips in brightness that do not match regular planetary transits. Most astrophysicists now attribute the obscuration to uneven swarms of disintegrating cometary dust.

Discovered by Arthur Hoag in 1950, this ring galaxy spans 120,000 light-years in the constellation Serpens. A second, much more distant ring galaxy is visible through the gap between its core and outer loop.

Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel discovered this ghostly object in 2007 through Galaxy Zoo. The cloud glows from ionizing radiation emitted by a quasar that shut down inside IC 2497 thousands of years ago.

Located roughly 250 million light-years away behind the Milky Way's Zone of Avoidance, this unseen mass tugs our local group at 600 kilometers per second. It coincides with the massive Norma galaxy cluster.

Situated 500 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, this dark absorption nebula spans half a light-year. Infrared surveys show the cloud is on the verge of gravitational collapse to form a young star.

Dubbed the brightest of all time, this explosion released more energy than seventy suns convert across their lifetimes. Its intense radiation pulse ionized Earth's upper atmosphere 2.4 billion light-years away.

Sedna never approaches closer than 76 astronomical units to the Sun, traveling three times farther than Neptune at its closest point. Its detached orbit suggests another massive body altered its path long ago.

Cataloged as IRAS 18059-3211, this object is a newborn star flanked by a thick protoplanetary disk seen edge-on. Light reflects off dust layers above and below the cold central equatorial band.

First spotted in 2015 by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae, this event released double the light of any previously recorded supernova. Astronomers suspect a rapidly spinning magnetar drove the flash.

Designated PSR B1957+20, this neutron star spins over 600 times every second. Intense particle winds and gamma radiation strip matter from its orbital partner, slowly eroding the brown dwarf down to nothing.

Cataloged as ACT-CL J0102-4915, this cluster holds an estimated three quadrillion times the mass of the Sun. Imaged in deep infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope, its mass bends background light into arcs.

Amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov detected this icy visitor in August 2019. Spectroscopic measurements by the Very Large Telescope confirmed its chemical makeup resembles comets formed in our own Oort cloud.

Surrounding the binary star HD 44179 roughly 2,300 light-years away in Monoceros, this nebula displays geometric symmetry rarely seen in space. Complex organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons glow red across its nested cones.

Packing four million solar masses into a space smaller than Mercury's orbit, Sagittarius A* produces sudden infrared and X-ray flares. The Event Horizon Telescope captured its polarized ring of magnetized plasma.