Source: Yahoo News
Eric Pfeiffer
Eric Pfeiffer
A team of salvage divers has discovered an unexplained object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden.
"This thing turned up. My first reaction was to tell the guys that we
have a UFO here on the bottom," said Peter Lindberg, the leader of the
amateur treasure hunters.
Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters
across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it's not alone. Nearby on
the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even
more fascinating, both objects have "drag marks" behind them on the sea
floor, stretching back more than 400 feet.
"Could this be the Star Wars Millenium Falcon, a plug to an inner
world or a marine version of Stonehenge?" asks CNN's Brooke Bowman:
Well, it could just be another shipwreck. Or, mud.
But Lindberg says the ship theory doesn't really hold up because of
the unusually large size of the objects. "Of course it would be
something from another ship but it's quite big," he told CNN. Lindberg
notes that some observers have speculated that the objects may be
Russian warships built around the end of the 1800's. However, Lindberg
points out that not only were those ships much smaller, they were not
patrolling the Baltic during that era.
The Baltic Sea is a literal treasure trove for salvage teams and a
"shipwreck laboratory" for researchers. The sea's low salinity levels
help preserve objects that sink to the bottom.
"Right now, we know about
20,000 objects, mostly shipwrecks, in the Baltic Sea. But I think there
may be more than 100,000," said sonar expert Ardreas Olsson, "I'm not
sure what you will see when you go down. But I'm excited. It's going to
be interesting to see what it is."
The Ocean Explorer team first made their find back in August
and had no plans to return to the scene. For now, Lindberg is waiting
for calmer waters in the Baltic, possibly in May, before taking his
salvage team to the bottom for a closer look at the mysterious objects.
They originally had no plans to return to the spot, but the spike in
interest from the public has led them to begin planning a return trip.