Scientists are baffled after discovering bizarre 'icy balls' in space that are like NOTHING seen before
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A pair of 'icy balls' discovered in a distant stretch of the Milky Way have left scientists baffled. The 'peculiar' objects don't resemble anything scientists have seen before and could even be an entirely new kind of star. Japanese researchers first spotted the balls in 2021, but it is only now that telescope observations have confirmed just how strange they are.
![[The two objects appear very close to each other in the sky but are actually extremely far apart. 'Object 1' is about 9.3 kiloparsecs (30,332 light years) from the Sun while 'Object 2' is 13.4 kiloparsecs (43,704 light years) away]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/21/12/94343417-14308427-The_two_objects_appear_very_close_to_eachother_in_the_sky_but_ar-a-37_1737463239273.jpg)
According to this new study, the light coming from these distant objects doesn't fit with anything predicted by current theories about star formation. Although they resemble dense clouds of gas or newly forming stars, they are totally isolated from regions where stars normally form.
![[Despite being unrelated, new telescope observations (pictured) show that both of the objects have very similar infrared properties]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/21/12/94343415-14308427-Despite_being_unrelated_new_telescope_observations_pictured_show-a-38_1737463244147.jpg)
Likewise, even though they give out infrared light as a star would, this doesn't line up with the large amounts of ice that surround them. To make things even stranger, the only two examples ever found are located extremely close to one another in the sky.
![[Scientists believe that these objects could be a type of newly forming star. However, their small size, isolation, and 'abundant ice' don't match with any known type of star (file photo)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/21/12/83367183-14308427-Scientists_say_that_when_our_sun_becomes_a_white_dwarf_star_in_s-a-34_1737462566466.jpg)
Lead researcher Dr Takashi Shimonishi, of Niigata University in Japan, says: 'We tried our best to reproduce the properties, but currently we cannot find any theories that can explain the spectral energy properties.'. Scientists have been baffled after discovering two 'icy balls' (pictured) which don't resemble anything known to science.
When Dr Shimonishi first spotted the two icy balls, it was immediately clear that they were exceptionally odd. The objects were spotted using the Japanese AKARI space telescope, which scanned the Milky Way in the infrared spectrum between 2006 and 2011.
