Since June last year, the strange shape at the bottom of the Baltic Sea has caused so much speculation.
Sonar pictures showed a massive, metallic cylinder with a 60 metre diameter and a 400 metre-long tail resting about 300 feet below the Baltic Sea – and no-one knows what it is.
It must be man-made, or a sonar anomaly – the alternative, perhaps, is that it comes from a universe far, far, away, as its startling likeness to the Millennium Falcon ship from the Star Wars saga implies.
Hopefully an answer is forthcoming, with deep sea divers heading to the shape today to get to the bottom of the matter – and surely it will be an eerie descent as they await to discover the secrets of the deep.
The Ocean Explorer team’s sonar pictures show that the object is a massive cylinder with a 60 metre diameter and a 400 metre-long tail deep in the Baltic Sea. A similar disk-shaped object was also found about 200 metres away
Unidentified treasure: Shipwreck divers are perplexed by the oddly-shaped object that they found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea
Deep sea divers, using remote-controlled cameras, are now on their way to the side, ready to find out once and for all what is down there.
A Swedish company named Ocean Explorer discovered the unidentified sunken object using their sonar technology in a secret location in the Baltic Sea, between Sweden and Finland.
Because of a lack of funding and bad timing, they have were not able to pull a team together to see for themselves – just the strange, metallic outline, and a similar disk-shaped object about 200 metres away.
The sonar picture of the unidentified object resembles the famed Star Wars ship the Millennium Falcon
At this point, the story behind the object is anyone’s guess.
‘We’ve heard lots of different kinds of explanations, from George Lucas’s spaceship – the Millennium Falcon – to “it’s some kind of plug to the inner world,” like it should be hell down there or something,’ said Peter Lindberg, a diver on the team.
Speaking to Fox News, he said: ‘We don’t know whether it is a natural phenomenon, or an object. We saw it on sonar when we were searching for a wreck from World War I. This circular object just turned up on the monitor.
‘We’ll be searching the area in a number of ways.
‘We’ll use sonar to make 3D images of the bottom, the clay bottom, of that part of the sea. We’ll send down deep-sea divers too. And a camera robot.
‘We’ll also take samples from the sea bed and measure them for toxicities and radiation.’
But Benjamin Radford, deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, told the Huffington Post: ‘My guess is that they won’t find anything. They may just find a large roundish rock.
‘”Side-scan sonar is not a photograph and it can create false echoes, so it’s not crystal clear what exactly it is that you’re recording.
‘The object that we’re talking about is basically flush with the ocean floor, and side-scan sonar is much less reliable for things like that.’
While the Ocean Explorer team is understandably excited about their potentially earth-shattering find, others are slightly more sceptical and are questioning the accuracy of the sonar technology.
In the past, such technology has confused foreign objects with unusual- but natural – rock formations.
The Baltic Sea is a treasure trove for shipwreck hunters, as an estimated 100,000 objects are thought to line the cold sea’s floor.
The company have created a submarine that they hope will appeal to tourists and wannabe shipwreck hunters who will pay to take a trip down to the bottom of the Baltic Sea to see for themselves.
Tourist trips: Diver Peter Lindberg is hoping to take wealthy tourists down in this submarine to see the object
The Baltic Sea is a treasure trove for shipwreck hunters, as an estimated 100,000 objects are thought to line the cold sea’s floor.
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