Buzz
Our eyes have their limitations, but with the aid of simulations and actual photographs, we can now experience the invisible like never before. We are now able to witness elusive phenomena such as the shimmering glints surrounding flowers, an atom (in its natural form), and even the very speed of light.
However, not everyone is in agreement. A new type of UFO has emerged in the skies, sparking debate. People remain divided on the credibility of these infrared anomalies that remain unseen to the naked eye.
10. Andromeda's Halo
When stargazers gaze up at the night sky, they witness countless twinkling lights. But there's more to see—though it's beyond the capabilities of the human eye. Galactic halos are vast gas clouds that encircle each galaxy, similar to an atmosphere. The halo of our nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, was unveiled in 2020.
If this simulation were a real phenomenon, a person walking their dog at night would observe a violet glow, 100 times larger than the Moon. However, researchers didn’t create this halo just to beautify the night sky. Of the two galaxies, studying the Milky Way's cloud proves to be more challenging. Insights gained from Andromeda could reveal secrets about our own halo’s history and how it may change over time.
To map Andromeda’s unseen atmosphere, scientists observed how ultraviolet light interacted with the gas. In short, this method helped trace the outline of the cloud. The result was staggering—an immense structure stretching 1.85 million light-years into space. Even more remarkable was the discovery that the halo consisted of two shell-like formations layered together.
But at the end of the day, most Earthlings were simply captivated by the stunning violet glow.
9. The Shock Wave of an Explosion
Who doesn’t enjoy a secluded government facility? These places are rife with rumors of aliens, secret technologies—and in this instance—a breathtaking photograph. Deep in the Canadian prairies, the Defence Research and Development agency owns a sprawling tract of land, an ideal location for blowing things up.
In 2015, during an explosive test, the agency set off explosives, and someone at the site managed to capture a photo of the resulting fireball—along with the shock wave it produced. A shock wave occurs when something moves or expands faster than the speed of sound, creating a sudden pressure shift. These waves are typically visible only in water or when they form below an explosion.
However, the 2015 photograph captured a shockwave traveling through the air. What made this image particularly remarkable was its sharpness. The shockwave's distinctive shape was clearly visible, enveloping the explosion in a bubble-like blur.
8. A Surprising X-Shaped Magnetic Field
NGC 4217 might have a dull name, but this spiral galaxy made headlines when an image of its magnetic field was captured in 2020. Little is known about how galaxies produce their magnetic fields, but the method for detecting them is straightforward. Scientists measure the speed and behavior of cosmic rays in the region to unveil the hidden field.
The magnetic field of NGC 4217 turned out to be immense, extending 22,500 light-years into space. It also had an X-shape. While these features weren’t unique—other spiral galaxies also have X-shaped magnetic fields stretching across vast distances—the image revealed strange phenomena within the field that had never been observed before.
For example, enormous gas bubbles floated within the field, and they were magnetic. Another magnetic field spiraled upwards. The most unusual discovery, however, was the loops being hurled outward.
7. Gravity Waves Over Australia
There’s no debate that Australian wildlife is bizarre and fascinating. However, it turns out that the invisible side of the continent is equally as intriguing. In 2019, a weather satellite captured an unusual ripple across Australia. Upon further examination, this phenomenon was identified as gravity waves.
It’s important to note that gravity waves aren’t unique to Australia. They occur in other places too, but witnessing them is extremely rare. Typically invisible, things took an unexpected turn when a storm brought cold air into the atmosphere off the northwestern coast. This cooler air clashed with the warmer air in the region, creating enough condensation to form wavy clouds.
The clouds took on a curved shape because they formed along the peaks of the gravity waves, which in turn made the ripples visible to satellites. These waves were caused by Earth’s gravity striving to restore balance to the atmosphere after the storm created a dramatic temperature shift.
6. Dark Matter
This mysterious substance makes up 85 percent of the universe. However, in the peculiar realm of space, dark matter is a phantom. We can't directly observe it. The only evidence we have for its existence comes from the way its gravity influences other matter and light. There’s also a theory that dark matter forms halos around galaxies—keep that in mind.
Recently, researchers invested their full efforts into a simulation. The Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics designed the test around a widely accepted theory—that dark matter is made of particles called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). To check if the particles behaved similarly across different scales, the simulation generated dark matter across 30 magnitudes of mass. True to theory, dark matter curled into halos around galaxies. Even more promising, it created halos at all mass scales, including those too small to be detected.
Since this behavior was consistent, the halos are now considered a defining characteristic of dark matter. The simulation also revealed that these halos were fuzzy around the edges but denser toward the center.
5. Bird Tracks in the Sky
For years, Barcelona photographer Xavi Bou was consumed by one burning question: What do bird tracks look like? However, Bou wasn’t looking down at the ground, but rather up at the sky. His imagination envisioned snake-like ripples trailing behind each bird. After much thought, he figured out how to photograph these invisible patterns.
Bou filmed various species of birds soaring through the air with a video camera. He then pieced together the individual frames to form a single image. This photograph captured the birds' movements step-by-step, creating captivating “tracks” that trace their flight paths.
4. The Speed of Light in Slow Motion
Nothing surpasses the speed of light (Sorry, Flash). Traveling at 186,000 miles per second (300 million meters per second), no one had ever seen what the speed of light actually looked like—until 2019. That’s when researchers finally unveiled the world’s fastest camera to capture the elusive phenomenon.
Known as the T-Cup, it captured a laser beam shooting through a bottle of milk. Why milk, you ask? The milk’s molecules scatter light particles, making them more visible. The T-Cup filmed this extraordinary event at a jaw-dropping 100 billion frames per second. To put that into perspective, only 24 frames are needed for a movie. Not even light could outrun the camera’s rapid clicks.
However, the speed of light could only be viewed in slow motion, as the laser passed through the bottle in just 2 billionths of a second. The footage showed a blue streak racing through the milk. While it wasn’t a visually stunning sight, the accomplishment was impressive.
3. A Trapped Atom
David Nadlinger was determined to prove conventional wisdom wrong. Science told him that atoms were too minuscule to be seen with the naked eye. But the physicist had a different goal: to observe an atom without any special lenses or magnification. In 2018, he succeeded. Overjoyed, Nadlinger snapped a photo of the elusive atom. His triumph didn’t go unnoticed—the image won the top award in a prestigious UK science competition.
Nadlinger captured the atom by positioning it between electric fields, then stabilizing it inside a vacuum chamber. Two needles, only 2mm (0.08 in) apart, held the atom in place. A blue-violet laser illuminated the atom, giving it a blue hue and making it visible to the naked eye. This remarkable achievement could one day assist in developing quantum computers or other groundbreaking technologies. But for now, it provides a rare opportunity to witness the fundamental building blocks of matter.
2. A New Type Of UFO (Perhaps)
One of the more peculiar claims in the UFO community is that the skies are filled with invisible flying objects. Many have used night-vision cameras to track these UFOs. The conclusion? There is a new type of UFO that emits infrared light, making it invisible to the naked eye. Some even claim to have witnessed aerial battles between these mysterious crafts.
However, skeptics are not convinced. They believe that these ‘invisible fleets’ are nothing more than airplanes, moths, bats, or satellites, magnified by infrared technology. Even the most dramatic sightings don’t garner much support from scientists. For example, in 2012, a paranormal group in Texas captured an image of a silent, blazing, triangle-shaped UFO, but scientists dismissed it as merely a military drone with infrared lights.
1. The Radiance of Flowers
In the realm of photography, there is a technique known as UVIVF (ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence photography), which makes objects glow in the unseen spectrum. By capturing this fluorescence in an image, the photographer brings to light a world that is normally invisible to the human eye. The results are breathtaking.
In 2018, photographer Craig Burrows applied this technique to flowers, creating images that looked like they came from an alternate reality. The flowers shimmered with otherworldly colors, sparkling and glowing in vivid hues.
While scientists have yet to fully uncover the function of ultraviolet fluorescence in nature, the photos of the flowers revealed something intriguing: pollen appeared exceptionally bright. This observation lent further support to an old theory that flowers may use fluorescence to attract pollinators.
