US biologists find ‘golden orb’ on ocean bed, netizens try to determine its origin

Scientists have been baffled by a golden orb found on the ocean floor last month, Sky news reported on Thursday. The object was discovered on August 30 and tests are being conducted to determine its origin.

The object, which many believe to be an egg, was found by marine biologists aboard a National Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) vessel near the coast of Alaska in the US.

The team was able to retrieve and brind it up to the surface by usin a robotic arm, but the actual identity of the object is yet to be determined.

“This golden orb, likely an egg casing, struck an imaginative chord for many watching yesterday,” NOAA Ocean Exploration wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

In the image, the object looks like a sponge with a hole in it.

Citing Miami Herald, the report further said that one of the researchers was heard saying, “something tried to get in…. or get out.”

Currently, the NOAA is in the middle of a five-month mission to explore the deeper ocean near Alaska. The 48-member team is equipped with tools to collect data from the depths of the ocean and share it with the researchers on dry land in real-time.

The crew aboard the Okeanos Explorer is currently mapping the Aleutian Trench and Gulf of Alaska while also collecting samples from as deep as 6,000 metres.

While the results of scientific tests will come in some time, users on X have given their opinion about the origins of this ‘golden orb’.

One X user wrote, “Maybe golden shark egg but I don’t think there normally in Alaska.”

While another said that a chicken must have passed by the region.

One user said that it might be a “giant squid or octopus egg” and later wrote that it might be a cocoon instead of an egg.

One user tried to connect it with the world famous ‘Harry Potter’ as there is a reference to a golden egg in the fourth film ‘Goblet of Fire’.