Scientists found a ‘golden egg’ deep in the sea near Alaska. But what is it?

Scientists are both intrigued and excited by the Aug. 30 discovery, while openly admitting they are baffled by what it could be, according to a live-streamed feed of the mission. Viewers online, meanwhile, joked that it could be the egg of an alien or a predator — or that it reminded them of a chocolate egg.

“It’s definitely got a big old hole in it,” one researcher says on the live stream. “So something either tried to get in or tried to get out.”

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As scientists mused over whether it was an “egg case,” “encrusting sponge” or “coral,” some also joined in the fun, with one joking: “I just hope when we poke it, something doesn’t decide to come out. … It’s like the beginning of a horror movie.”

“When our collective knowledge can’t identify it, it’s something weird,” said a member of the NOAA Ocean Exploration team. “What kind of an animal would make an egg casing like that?”

“While somewhat humbling to be stumped by this finding, it serves as a reminder of how little we know about our own planet and how much is left to learn and appreciate about our ocean,” Sam Candio, the NOAA Ocean Exploration coordinator for the expedition, told The Washington Post on Thursday.

NOAA admitted that the finding had “struck an imaginative chord for many watching,” with its official research account saying scientists were “trying to crack this golden egg mystery!” and calling on the public to send in their ideas.

“At first glance, it’s possibly the remains of an egg case of an invertebrate animal, or perhaps a slightly mangled sponge,” Jon Copley, a professor of ocean exploration and science communication at the University of Southampton, told The Post after looking at images Thursday. He also sought to reassure the public, saying the orb was “certainly nothing that should worry us.”

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Discoveries like the egg still have the potential to “catch people’s attention” and spark fascination because the deep ocean isn’t as accessible as the sky and space, Copley added. “We often find things in the deep ocean that we haven’t seen before or don’t immediately recognize, because the deep ocean is vast and we’ve only been exploring what lives there over the past couple of centuries, unlike life on land.”

Such discoveries help in “renewing our sense of wonder at how amazing nature is, all around us,” Copley said, though he emphasized that some of the “life forms we brush past every day are just as weird and wonderful as anything we find in the deep ocean.”

“Without detailed examination and analysis of the specimens obtained, we don’t know what this strange object is,” said Daniel Jones, associate head of ocean biogeosciences at Britain’s National Oceanography Center. “But it highlights the diversity of life in the world’s deep oceans that remains undiscovered and the importance of scientific exploration.”

Meanwhile, the NOAA Ocean Exploration team hopes to solve the egg mystery.

The team used a remote vehicle to “tickle” the egg, revealing that it had a soft, skinlike texture. They then used a gentle suction machine to remove the egg from its rock for further study.

However, while scientists were able to successfully collect the orb from the seafloor and bring it to the surface, expedition coordinator Candio said, “we still are not able to identify it beyond the fact that it is biological in origin.” He added, “We likely won’t learn more until we are able to get it into a laboratory setting.”

The dive was part of the Seascape Alaska 5 expedition in the Gulf of Alaska, using the NOAA Okeanos Explorer ship. The mission began Aug. 23 and will end Sept. 16.

The expedition uses remotely operated vehicles and multibeam sonar mapping to explore depths ranging from 200 to 6,000 meters, NOAA said. It aims “to explore deep-sea coral and sponge habitats, fish habitats … and to improve knowledge of past and potential geohazards.”

Candio said discovering deep sea species has the potential to reveal “sources for medical therapies and vaccines, food, energy, and other societal benefits and knowledge.”

“Isn’t the deep sea so delightfully strange?” Candio added. “Who knows what we will discover next?”