Amazingly, we have more detailed maps of the surface of Mars than we do of the Earth’s oceans. There are many things humanity has looked for under the surface, like pirates’ treasure or the lost city of Atlantis. Brandi Mueller found something on a dive in the Pacific that was so surprising, it caused controversy in America.

Brandi Mueller is an accomplished marine adventurer and explorer. She’s been scuba diving since she was 15, and has been teaching others the art of diving for over ten years. Along with that, she is a boat captain. Most importantly, she is a photojournalist, who takes underwater pictures that illuminate the unknown world of the oceans, where it’s estimated most of life on earth exists. She’s been to the waters off the coasts of 50 countries, but what she saw in the Marshall Islands was unique- even to her.

Underwater photography is one of the hardest versions of the art, as there are so many hurdles to achieving a good picture. But, the pictures that come out are so beautiful, it’s worth it. Brandi learned that lighting underwater is very hard, as the sun’s light doesn’t penetrate to deep depths. So she learned to use flash correctly, but even then, she got backscatter from reflections off plankton. Even with all her training, she’d never quite taken pictures like the ones she took in the Pacific in 2015.

The colorful photographs that Brandi took have won her multiple awards, including accolades from National Geographic and from The Smithsonian. Along with her adventurous spirit and aesthetic eye, she also knows exactly what she’s looking at. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in tropical medicine. We were lucky it was her who discovered the site near the Marshall Islands and not someone who would have jumped to conclusions about what he or she was seeing.

Although most people have never heard of the Marshall Islands, it’s very tied to America- they use the US dollar, and is in “free association” with the United States. Geographically, it’s a tiny group of islands in the Pacific near the equator. It’s home to about 50,000 people, who speak Marshallese and English. The indigenous islanders used to build charts made of sticks to navigate the ocean. It’s an interesting blend of indigenous and American culture. Mueller went there to photograph the natural beauty of the remote location.

The Marshall Islands are made up of atolls, which are circular structures of coral that surround a lagoon. The area has much natural beauty- a perfect place for Brandi to explore. There is a government-protected shark sanctuary in the area spanning over 750,000 square miles, which protects the 22 different kinds of Marshallese sharks. Three hundred different species of fish inhabit the island area. The coral reefs there are also relatively untouched; they did not get bleached, unlike other reefs.

Scuba is actually an acronym that stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It’s basically the gas tank that helps Brandi breathe underwater. Before any underwater breathing technology was available, people simply had to hold their breath. The world record is over 11 minutes! The one thing to be careful of when diving is the bends, which is a sickness that divers get when rising too quickly. Brandi ventured out one day into the water near the Pacific, with her scuba and camera gear.

The first stop on the tour was the waters surrounding the Kwajalein Atoll, or as it’s known in short, Kwaj. Brandi took pictures of beautiful animals, like parrotfish, wire coral shrimp, and other forms of life like bubble coral. As she swam around with her flashlights and gear, she couldn’t believe the marvelous colors. On land, she had met a lot of the locals, including a man who shredded on the guitar. But nothing beat the wonder she felt underwater. She swam towards something she couldn’t quite make out.

As Brandi swam closer to the mystery object, she readied her camera. She could hear herself breathing through the scuba gear, excited for this new find. However, when she got close, it wasn’t a fish at all. She looked, feeling disappointed, at what looked like something man-made. Quietly, with her goggles fogging with anger, she asked herself how humans could be so careless to litter in the ocean. As she re-focused on the moment, she noticed another glimmer in the distance, and decided to swim towards it.

As Brandi swam along to the mystery object, she thought about the pollution in the ocean. There had been too many oil spills and algal blooms caused by humankind. Slowly but surely, it seemed that there was more human-made debris surrounding her. What was happening? Did a boat tip over? It didn’t make any sense, Brandi thought, as this area was supposed to be protected, and so far from the big corporations of the mainland. When she came over a ridge, she finally understood.

She couldn’t believe it. The unmistakable silhouette of an airplane. No chance it could be a funnily shaped coral reef. In total shock, she flew to the small plane, which looked like it could hold one or two people maximum. The surface was decorated with pieces of coral and seaweed; fish swam in and out of the crevasses of the aircraft. In disbelief, she shone her flashlights all over and examined the seaweed-covered gauges. Another shiny glint caught her eye, and she gasped through the scuba gear.

There were hundreds of them. Brandi’s heart was racing. Hundreds of these small planes, which looked, upon closer inspection, like warplanes, littered the ocean floor, about 130 feet under the water. They were in every which orientation, including vertical, looking like they were about to crash into the ground. What were these planes? Were they American made? Why were they here? Brandi was in total awe of what she was seeing, but at the same time, was excited to get back on land to do some research on these planes.

Back on land, Brandi sat down to do some research. During World War II, the US and allies had fought Japan in the Pacific. The allies used a strategy called “island hopping” to make their way to Japan. Were the planes American or Japanese? She figured out from her pictures that the planes down there were allied forces planes. From the markings on the planes and their shapes, she was able to figure out they were Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, TBF/TBM Avengers, and F4U Corsair series planes.

During World War II, the Marshall Islands were fought over in operations codenamed “Flintlock” and “Catchpole.” The Japanese Empire put up defenses like pillboxes, but the US troops use of the Air Force to bombard their bases and the shelling of the island by the Navy made it relatively easy for the US to overtake the islands. One battle had ten times as many Japanese casualties as American. Even though the Japanese had strengthened the islands for 20 years, in 20 days, the US armed forces were in control.

Something also confusing to Brandi was that after World War II, The Marshall Island’s Bikini Atoll was used to test nuclear bombs. During the Cold War, America was trying to build more bombs than the Soviet Union, and detonated 23 of them in the Marshall Islands. One, Castle Bravo, was way bigger than expected, and residents couldn’t go back to their homes because of radioactivity. Were planes involved in the tests? Perhaps, but these small planes probably couldn’t carry bombs. These sunken planes were probably not related, she thought.

Something was off about these planes, so she decided to try and figure it out. She sat on a small boat, in her wetsuit, with her goggles on her forehead, deep in thought. The sound of the motor faded to the background. At the dive site, she perched herself on the edge of the boat, and leaned backwards until she splashed underwater. All she could hear now was her own breathing. As she swam closer to the field of planes, she took notice of a couple of things.

Brandi was not an amateur- she has explored the waters of over 50 countries. The planes gave her a surreal feeling, as they were in the undulating deep blue of the ocean rather than the crisp blue of the sky, soaring above the clouds. Some were covered with sand on the ocean floor, and looked almost like a shark, but with the tail fin sticking out of the sand rather than the water. She thought back to her other explorations. She had seen something like this before.

Brandi had seen ships sunken in the same Atoll, and she thought about what she saw there. Ships- both shipping and military vessels- had been damaged heavily by US air strikes, leading to the demise of the Japanese-made ships. Now, nature has taken to using these wrecks as homes. On Asakaze Maru, one of the most well-known wrecks, a green sea turtle has made itself a home in the kingposts. Another ship, the Akibasan Maru now hosts a school of barracuda.

The Akibasan Maru, beyond the ray-finned fish inside, has scars from being directly struck by fire and sunk in minutes. Brandi examined the holes, and moved on to swim to the Asakazi Maru, a ship that was so wrecked by US gunfire that it is almost just a mound of metal. Inside the ships, there are bottles of sake that must have been saved for the Japanese victory over the Americans that never came. Suddenly, in a eureka moment, she understood what was off about the planes!

Brandi finally understood her gut feeling about the planes. They were all basically intact! Yes, she thought, a bit of the scaffolding underneath the metal was showing, but that must have been from strong ocean currents. The planes had no bullet holes, no twisted metal from a hot hail of bullets, and no deformed fuselages. The planes were basically intact. How did they fall out of the sky? How did the Japanese manage to hit these American-made planes and leave no trace?

Another weird thing Brandi just realized as she treaded water: there are no remains of soldiers in the planes. There weren’t any skeletons, or even loose bones of the pilots. Although she didn’t expect it to be like the movies, where a skeleton of a fully dressed pirate, eyepatch and all, cradling a treasure chest under the water, she expected something. Maybe the many sharks in the area ate the pilots, but still, bones would have been left behind. She headed to land with answers, but also more questions.

That evening, Brandi sat at her laptop uploading the pictures from that day. She organized the pictures, thinking long and hard about why the planes were in such pristine condition. She wondered about the fate of the poor souls who died in the battles on the Marshall Islands. Where were these heroic pilots? Looking online for some information about World War II, she got to some interesting passages about the Pacific Theatre and the end of the war. What she read answered her question.

Feeling like she was back in graduate school, Brandi read about the end of the war. The Japanese leader, Emperor Hirohito got on the radio to deliver the now famous Jewel Voice Broadcast, which was the declaration of surrender of the Japanese to the Allied Forces. The US celebrated victory as treaties were signed. The troops were on their way home. But before they left, they started something called Operation Rollup. Brandi leaned in closer to her computer, as this looked like it would give some insight.

Operation Rollup was the Navy’s way to trying to deal with all the war vehicles like tanks, planes, and jeeps that were brought to remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. How would they get them back home? Surprisingly, the strategy sometimes was to simply dump the tanks and planes into the Pacific, due to the high cost of shipping it all back! This was the reason that the planes were in such good shape- they were never used! The Japanese never shot them down. It also happened in Vanuatu.

During World War II, the Navy was also present in Vanuatu, an island in the Pacific near Fiji. After the war, the Navy took a ramp, and simply drove jeeps, forklifts, and other vehicles directly into the ocean. The coral-covered metal heap is now called Million Dollar Point, for the huge amount of waste that must have resulted. The local people thought that the Americans had lost their minds when they saw them driving their cars directly into the abyss of the water.

Brandi was annoyed with the waste: “[the planes] should have flown more, lived longer, but they were sunk in perfect condition.” They could have used the vehicles or at least sold the pieces for scrap metal. After all, the Marshall Islands is a poor area- they would not survive without US aid. In fact, one of their biggest tuna factories closed in 2005. Brandi read though, that part of Operation Rollup actually did call for saving some of the vehicles, and they were used later in the Korean War.

Wars can be extremely costly. The United States spent $341 billion in 1945, which is equivalent to more than 10 times that in today’s dollars! Dumping the planes in the ocean made those tax dollars spent even less worth it. For comparison’s sake, the 2003-2010 War in Iraq cost $1 trillion. Now, the main way the dumped vehicles are used is as tourist attractions for scuba divers. Since Brandi publicized the “Airplane Graveyard,” many have visited. But there are more valuable things underwater than the remnants of war.

Three hundred long years ago, a Spanish ship, a type of sail-driven ship called a Galleon, was sailing near Colombia with a booty of gold, silver, and precious stones. The ship was lost, and hope of finding it had almost been totally extinguished. In 2015, the government of Colombia said they found the wreckage of the ship, which contains an estimated $17 billion of treasure! However, the government is currently in a dispute with an American company who says they found the gold first.

Today, pirates generally don’t have eye patches and parrots on their shoulders, but piracy itself is alive and well. In recent years, pirates off the coast of Somalia have attacked cruise ships, shooting the passenger ships with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. These ships are not carrying treasure. So what the pirates do is hold the ships hostage, and demand ransom money. The ships hire private security companies to spray the pirates with water cannons, sound cannons, or even live ammunition.

After a whirlwind of surreal beauty, confusion, and finally, answers, Brandi remarked that overall, “seeing planes underwater is strange, planes don’t belong in the water, they belong in the sky, so it [felt] weird to dive on them … these planes didn’t sink because of the war [so] they are special.” She sat on the bouncing, humming motorboat, covered in a warm towel, as it headed back to shore. She looked out wistfully over the sea, wondering what other treasures she could photograph in the Earth’s final frontier.

Some visionary photographers were in just the right place at the right time to capture such incredible images that will make the viewer question everything! From underwater crop circles created by a pufferfish to fields blanketed in spider silk, prepare to be awestruck.

These two baby pandas nestled in their carer’s arms are forming the shape of a heart! Don’t they look adorable? Their soft swathes of black and white fur create the cutest image! The smile on their carer’s face is proof of just how fun caring for baby pandas is! Did you know caring for cuddling and clingy pandas is a real job in China? You can actually get paid to hug pandas!

Have you ever looked at a building and thought to yourself the following? “Why does this building have windows? It’s just a wall. It’s completely flat!” Well, that’s what we asked ourselves when we first saw this image. Upon first glance, it looks like this building is two dimensional and is completely flat. However, if one does a little bit of research, you will discover that it is much bigger than it appears to be. It’s just the angle that this photo is taken at creates the illusion that it is flat.

Rainbows form when sunlight enters and reflects out of raindrops. For a quadruple rainbow to be possible, sunlight has to pass through the raindrops four times. Quadruple rainbows are dim because direct sunlight has to pass through heavy rain so many times for it to happen. Quadruple rainbows are also very rare, so you, along with most other humans, have likely not seen four natural rainbows at once in the sky. Someone has luckily captured it in this wonderful picture!

Four students from China’s Hefei Normal University created this stunning off-shoulder “leaf dress” from nearly 6,000 magnolia and osmanthus leaves that they collected on campus and from the nearby Tianzhu Mountain. If you are wondering why these leaves are yellow, it is because the students had to boil the leaves in an alkali and sodium carbonate solution to preserve them. It took them six months to make the dress. After a lot of trial and error, this is the wonderful result!

This distorted railway line is the result of the Canterbury Earthquake. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake has strikingly twisted railway tracks. It now looks like a roller-coaster track at an amusement park, except it’s still on the ground! The railway will have to be repaired, though, because it is a strong deformation caused by concentrated stress. You wouldn’t think an earthquake could do this if you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes!

Crop circles in fields are made by UFOs, according to conspiracy theorists. Underwater crop circles are not so controversial. They are created by male pufferfish to attract mates! Males flap their fins as they swim to disrupt sediment, making ornate circular patterns that take them up to ten days to create. Once they have laboriously created their designs, the male pufferfishes wait. A female pufferfish will swim into the center if it catches her eye. Mating can then begin!

Woodpecker tongues are long and narrow with a barbed tip. It’s so long, it can wrap around its head! Their tongue bones help them peck! Their tongues are so long because it helps them dislodge their food from deep crevices. Ants and insect larvae hiding in the bark of wood are forced out. Woodpeckers curl their tongue around the back of the head, between the skull and skin, when they are not using it.

How many times have you seen an airplane charm its way through the night sky? How about the number of times you’ve seen a solar eclipse? Just like the fact that you’ve probably never won the lottery, we bet that you’ve never seen an airplane fly through a solar eclipse before either, let alone this precisely centered. You should thank us for showcasing this cult symbol without the need for UV glasses!

If you think the man with the biggest forearms is Popeye, then think again. This arm-wrestling champion has a forearm the size of a cat. We don’t mean sliding all your rolls from your stomach to your chest fat. This is some serious muscle! Due to a genetic defect, Matthias “Hellboy” Schlitte was born with only a strong right arm. This is a guy who put a worrisome flaw to good use. He’s now a 20-time international champion at right arm wrestling!

Playing tennis on the lawn is something regular people would do, right? If you want excitement to an extreme level, though, you should play sports in the sky. Why should all of your rooftop extravaganzas be reserved for swimming only? This picture of the helipad of the famous Burj Al Arab hotel was taken during a tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, with poor Nadal losing 700ft off the ground.

Super rich people with affluent choices always continue to surprise us. It’s not like we haven’t seen tigers riding in cars (thank you, The Hangover). However, would you let this terrifying carnivore sit next to you in a car? Even if it was heavily sedated? This picture of a tiger riding front seat was taken around Marina Promenade and has gone viral in social media. We don’t even let our dog ride front seat! Although amusing at first sight, this image also has raised fury with animal rights activists and animal lovers.

You are getting your dinner ready and start by cutting up some veggies. All of a sudden, in a bag of frozen peas, you find the cutest and tiniest peapod! What do you do? Upload it on social media and show it to the rest of the world, of course. Literally, no one has the opportunity to see a little peapod fully intact. We would rather believe that this man has a ginormous hand! These pretty little peas just had to be here.

Ice sculptures have become a symbol of luxury over the past two decades. It has no use, doesn’t stay for more than a day, and is incredibly expensive to make. This gigantic ice sculpture, on the other hand, is an iceberg shaped like a mushroom created by the hands of nature. Icebergs generally have domed or wedged shapes. This mushroom-shaped iceberg may look amusing, but your boat can easily be hit by it, leaving you to freeze to death in the chilly water. Remember Titanic?

The Rhone’s dark, steady blue and the Arve River’s flowing, muddy green waters merge together dramatically at a point called La Jonction, where the hues of deep blue and silty green swirl together. They are sitting perfectly next to each other in this incredible photograph. The confluence of the Rhone and Arve rivers creates a striking contrast that many would not believe existed if they did not see it in Geneva, Switzerland.

Frozen lakes become natural ice rinks only in movies, but if you are lucky enough to live near Switzerland’s large lakes in winter, you can safely ice skate on them! Thousands of frozen lakes that you can walk or skate on exist in Switzerland and are tested for safety by local authorities. These lakes are prepared for public use. This particular lake froze very slowly, so the ice crystals had time to grow very large, and now sparkle like diamonds in the sun.

Did you know that trees can slow down soil erosion rates by binding soil to sloping land with their roots? Here, in this image, this enormous, indomitable tree is barely hanging on to what little land it can grab onto while the dry and arid soil surrounding it has sunk several inches. The trees and shrubs growing around look defeated, but this gigantic, tenacious tree is still miraculously standing in full bloom.

There is a dark gray region between the moon and Earth known as the umbra, where our moon completely obscures the Sun, even though it is so much smaller. During solar eclipses, satellites can capture the shadow of the moon passing over the Earth. NASA astronauts have spotted this too, but you don’t have to be one of the astronauts to see it because it has been captured in this mysterious picture.

Animals can suffer from homesickness just as we do! This is a picture of a colorful parrot pressing its face against a glass decorated with a sticker of an undisturbed forest. Parrots generally live in green woodlands, rainforests, and savannahs, where they nest in cavities such as tree hollows. This parrot clearly recognizes its former home and there is a sad longing apparent in its expression. We would console the birdie with a hug if we could!

If you think that this polar bear fled to the woods because of a dyeing appointment gone bad, then you’d be wrong. This is a Kermode bear, also known as a spirit bear. It’s a rare subspecies of the black bear with a recessive gene that makes their fur white. These grizzlies receive their “spirit” name because of their timid nature. Don’t be fooled, though; they will devour you in seconds, although most bears take half a day to finish off their kill.

These freakishly large mushroom sprouts, weighing 845 grams, are the result of one small mistake made by Watervale’s Little Bunyip Farm. Known as the King Oyster mushroom, they were accidentally grown in vertical straw bags which were intended for Phoenix Oyster mushrooms. The farm wasn’t sure whether it was edible given its enormous size. King Oysters are generally quite large, but this mushroom is just massive! Would you dare eat it?

How strangely satisfying do these snow donuts look rolling down a hill? These form naturally when the weather conditions are just right. Bright, sunny weather that ensures wet (but not melted) snow and relatively strong winds that can move the snow donuts without blowing them up is needed for these snow donuts to form. It can be as small as a tennis ball or bigger than a tire. The snow donut in the picture is 26 inches, though! It’s like nature’s version of a giant snowman!

This Australian field has been bizarrely blanketed by reams of spider silk, caused by wolf spiders migrating upwards after water flooded their ground dwellings. Silk cast from spiders’ bodies is captured by the light breeze. The wolf spiders use their spider silk like a parachute to float up to the sky and fly long distances in a natural migration phenomenon called “ballooning”. The spider silk blanketing the fields like snow is called angel hair. If you’re scared of spiders, these fields might scare you, but they do look undeniably beautiful.

These spiky ice crystals are called frazil! Ice forms needle-like crystals when turbulent ocean water freezes. These ice crystals form in winter if the temperatures suddenly plunge. However, frazil ice doesn’t float for long, as they are doing here. They can sink very easily and adhere to structures in the water, blocking water flow. They can be a nightmare for those managing water bodies, but for the rest of us, these needle-like ice crystal clusters just look super cool!

We’ve all seen fat sheep falling upside down and then being rolled back by shepherds. Are sheep really as bulbous as they look, though? This picture of sheep before and after being sheared says otherwise. This is a lot of fleece from one naked flock! Imagine the number of sweaters you would receive if your grandmother raised them in a farm herself, although you could prevent these sheep from becoming completely bare by returning the knitted sweaters to them.

Ever wondered what a ‘firenado’ would look like? Well, now you know! It looks as frightening as you’d expect it to be, but what can spawn this rare, terrifying freak of nature? Wildfires cause forests to go up in flames every once in a while, but the blaze can spread from forest to neighborhoods if houses are built near them. This wildfire grew so strong that it unleashed a tornado! Big wildfires like this can create strong winds. They can also make it rain or even produce lightning.

You’ve probably heard of hair growing in the strangest of places like hands and feet. Then there’s Wolverine with a stunning beard that makes your heart melt. What you’ve never seen before is perhaps a streetlight pulling off a beard this well! This is probably a wig flown off a woman’s head getting stuck in a streetlight. However, we’d like to think of this sodium vapor lamp having magnetic properties to suck up hair.

Cars aren’t exactly easy to move around if you want to transport multiple ones at once. If they need to be taken to be repaired or simply need to be relocated somewhere without actually being driven, you might want to consider investing in a vehicle designed to traffic other vehicles. This company though in Africa decided to take matters into their own hands. They simply fitted the cars onto the top and sides of a truck and tied them as tightly as possible to ensure they didn’t fall.

Ever since the success of the ’60s Batman TV show, fans all over the world have been creating Batmobiles. This superior vehicle is a fan creation of the actual car designed for two movies in the Batman film series: Batman and Batman Returns. The original car was used by Micheal Keaton, the actor who played Batman so well that the vehicle was dubbed as the Keaton Mobile. If Barney had this, he wouldn’t have even needed the Playbook!

As you can see, this person’s middle finger isn’t pruney like the rest of the fingers, because it has nerve damage! This is known as the “skin wrinkle” test. A finger with nerve damage doesn’t wrinkle underwater. Scientists used to think that fingers and toes prune up because of osmosis, but this disproved it! Instead, our fingers and toes wrinkle up underwater to improve our grip on wet or submerged objects!

What is up with everyone’s fascination with cat paws? Even sock manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon and are now making paws that resemble your pets! You can search Amazon for socks of any animal, from tigers and dinosaurs to dogs and zebras. Imagine tucking in these socks under your office pants and then going home after a day of work to make Tiktok videos with your feline friend. Spook the fur out of your cat!

This is not one of those mirages you’ve read about in your Physics class. You, my friend, are looking at a real-life camel. We bet that, by the looks of it, you can tell that this decorated camel is from India. Apparently, parking camels along with cars is pretty common in Rajasthan, India. This picture was taken by a tourist near Mehrangarh Fort of Jodhpur, Rajasthan back in December 2017.

This crocodile is catching a small fish that is catching an even smaller fish, in a stunning display of how the food chain works. This photo went viral shortly after it was taken by Massimiliano Bencivenni in Brazil. This small fish leaped up to catch its dinner but was swallowed by a hungry crocodile mid-air! In nature, you’re never far away from your predator. How the photographer managed to get such a clear shot of this incredible instant is unclear.

This picture was taken in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska. A seagull was trying to save its friend from the claws of an Eagle and wounded up in a mid-air fight. By pursuing and fearlessly pecking at the Eagle’s back, the brave seagull saved his friend from the claws of the predator. This feels like a story straight out of Aesop’s Fables. Gratitude to David Canales for taking this brilliant shot, now we have seen everything!

At the point of the nuclear event over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, a huge number of people perished; but, surprisingly, this tree, just 750 meters away from the detonation point, survived. Although numerous survivors thought that nothing would grow in the city for quite a long time, this tree along with several other trees in the region has been growing for 75 years. This tree has been a messenger of hope for people all around the globe.

Wouldn’t it be fun to do your dishes wearing a glove with a silly mashup of Martin Luther King and his iconic speech? Well, the Martin Loofah King Exfoliating Glove presents both an entertaining play on words and a deep clean. One side of the glove is decorated with a picture of Martin Luther King himself and the other side has “I have a clean” imprinted as a funny improvisation of his iconic speech entitled “I have a dream.”

This book staircase in Balamand University is known as the StairCase of knowledge. The staircase exhibits 21 book covers in chronological order. This incredible staircase was solely designed by the students for a project, and it is located next to the university library. It is surely one of the most interesting things to witness for a book lover since it has a wide variety of books ranging from history to science.

This huge Greenland shark was discovered in the North Atlantic Ocean by researchers who evaluated it to be as much as 512 years of age – the oldest living vertebrate in the world. Greenland sharks generally have a lifespan of 300-500 years and are estimated to grow by only one cm per year. This shark was alive during the most significant world events, like the establishment of the US in 1776, the sinking of Titanic, and both world wars.

“What is dead may never die” – the common saying in the popular TV series Game of Thrones fits this picture perfectly. This tree was uprooted during a storm and eventually helped four more trees to grow from it. The trees that grew from it were no small grass trees either; they are taller than the uprooted tree itself. This is one of the rarest sights to see in this weird world.

Do you have a fascination with the idea of traveling the country on an RV? Check out this amazing tiny house made on a truck with extreme creativity. However, the owner of this truck is still unknown. The wood made tiny house was spotted in Nueske’s, Wittenberg. We bet you couldn’t have imagined such a sustainable house on the roads before seeing this picture. Thankfully, someone has captured this superb truck house for travel enthusiasts around the world.

This is the Royal Ontario Museum located in Toronto, which is well-known for the fact that it looks like a glitched building in a video game. Made of only metal and glass, it is a museum with one of the most sophisticated architectural designs in the world. It attracts around a million visitors every year. When you get to see this building, you will feel like you’re in the middle of two different centuries since it is built alongside a historical building of the museum.

If you find it difficult to play one guitar, wait till you see what the Japanese artist Yoshihiko Satoh has designed! He is the mastermind behind this multi-neck guitar. That’s what he does; he alters largely-produced items and multiplies them with awesomeness. This guitar design is, by far, his most amazing work; he merged 12 guitars into one highly functional instrument After seeing this picture, anyone would say, “Well, now, I’ve seen everything!”

This is probably one of the most adorable pictures on the internet right now. In the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, a group of mighty lions was spotted taking shelter from the blistering sun, eventually falling asleep on the branches of the tree. This group of lions overlook their territory while taking a nap on such heights. Thanks to Alexander Kirichko, we get to see a cute side to this otherwise ferocious animal.

This rare, gorgeous white reindeer was spotted in Mala, Sweden a few years ago. A group of friends caught sight of this magnificent reindeer on the street. According to the people of that locality, this reindeer is considered to be a stroke of luck for anyone who comes across it. The reason behind its majestic appearance is actually a kind of genetic disorder that clears out color from their fur. These white reindeers are so rare that local people get excited every time they get to see one of these.

Did you ever think a football stadium could look like an alien spaceship lifting off into the sky? Well, add the perfect layer of fog on the horizon, and Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa’s visionary design, and that’s just what the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg will look like.

You can imagine how grueling a Queen’s Guard’s life has to be simply by looking at these shoes. You might wonder, what makes the boots look so worn out? Don’t they just stand outside the palace? Well, the guards actually have to keep standing for hours on end in accordance with a specific schedule throughout the year. What’s more is that these boots apparently must not exceed the weight of three dead swans and 10 cucumber sandwiches, according to historical policies. What a strange basis of measuring weight!

Do you think this looks like the Pac Man doodle eating the coins, or a cute looking, delicious muffin spewing out silver coins? If you thought this was the latter, you’re right; this is a purse featuring what looks like real muffins! Imagine this: you’re sitting at McDonald’s waiting for your Big Mac, and this is what your girlfriend brings for you. Let’s say, you didn’t notice the strange appearance and munched down on it – that has to hurt!

Lego’s can be a great way to express your creativity even if you’re old and grey. This is a Lego version of the world-renowned scientist and physicist Stephen Hawking. This was created 10 years ago to celebrate Stephen Hawking’s flight on the zero-gravity Vomit Comet. It features the classic Lego shapes, but it is designed so perfectly that anyone would be able to recognize the person at a glance. As a fan of the legendary Stephen Hawking, we would definitely get ourselves one of these!

Who wouldn’t love to see a place where pets are treated like kings? We sure would! You don’t have to travel back in time to see this devotion though. These lovable horses are being petted in a Horse Culture Museum in the Jiangsu province of China. Horse Culture Museums can be seen as part of equestrian-themed towns and are a big crowd attraction. Why should cats and dogs have all the fun?

In the west, most people that are of legal driving age own at least one car or truck. In fact, many households have upwards of two vehicles and you’ll often see cars on the road with just one person inside. Elsewhere, however, you’ll see more people on a motorbike than you would have thought possible. The first time you see it is pretty jaw-dropping, but it’s actually a very common sight in many countries including Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

This photo was taken in a beautiful Icelandic ice cave and shows a section of cave ice that has turned gold as the setting sun’s rays sneak in to set it aglow. Travel photographer Sarah Bethea was there at exactly the right time of year in order to capture the moment and this photo makes you realize how the caves may have earned their name, Treasure Island Caves.

It’s generally viewed that optimism is a positive trait, but as this photo clearly shows, some people take it a little too far. That bed base is not going to fit into that car. Not even in a million years. It’s not even as if the door is just a couple of inches too short either so she must suffer from acutely terrible spatial awareness to have even entertained the idea. You’ve got to love her optimism though.

Imagine looking out of the kitchen window into your backyard and seeing this, instead of your usually flat and normal-looking pond. Well, that’s what happened to Reddit user Capricorn77 who then posted this picture online to try and find answers. People rushed to Capricorn77’s assistance and offered various theories on what it could be and advice on who to call, but unfortunately, everyone was left out in the cold as the poster never reported back what it was. How rude!

It takes a couple of seconds to figure out what’s actually going on in this photo. Somebody (presumably a man!) has drawn eyes and a mouth on their neck, added glasses, and then lifted their chin up into the air. Coupled with a clever camera angle, the beard transforms into a wiry mop of hair. We think it’s great when people use their spare time and imagination to entertain us, but why the sad face? We’ve seen worse hairstyles!

Ronald McDonald has been a mascot for the infamous McDonald’s fast-food chain since 1963. We could understand the presence of one, but why there are eight Ronald McDonald’s all standing around in the parking lot here is anyone’s guess. In our opinion, eight Ronalds is around eight too many, but for anyone suffering from coulrophobia, this sight would be downright terrifying. A Chapman University survey found that 7.8% of Americans suffer from an irrational fear of clowns.

Even if you’ve never tried it, one can only imagine that standing upright on a surfboard or paddleboard is incredibly difficult. When it’s in the water that is. But to do a headstand on one? This lady’s not even dressed for swimming, so she must be very confident with her ability to balance and control the ascent and descent of the headstand. We’re not sure about you, but we’re very impressed. Bravo.

Interestingly, a group of cats is called a staring and we just can’t stop staring at this picture! We don’t need a headcount to tell that we’re 100% certain we’ve never seen so many cats in one place, seemingly voluntarily. But what brings them all here and why do they look so happy, we wonder? We can’t help but theorize that those rather innocent-looking plants in the center of the picture are actually catnip plants…

Great news! Star Wars fans can now purchase child-sized storm-troopers and Darth Vaders to decorate their home with. You’d hope that if you caught your kid playing with them, they’d be on the side of the Jedis though, right? This kid might have some daddy issues and has seen a unique opportunity to switch to the dark side of the force. As he bows ceremoniously to be knighted by the evil one’s light-saber, we worry slightly for his parents.

Emperor penguins migrate further inland on an annual basis to breeding lands, before returning to the sea with their chicks in summer. This train doesn’t even go to the breeding grounds. These silly penguins must be lost. But in all seriousness, imagine turning up to a busy metro station and seeing this. At the very least, we suppose it would make a good conversation starter for the rest of the day. Or did you imagine it..?

You haven’t seen it all until you’ve seen a man vacuuming up the snow on the streets. It looks like he’s got a lot of work to do and unless he finds a plug outlet soon, he’ll freeze to death. Even after he’s plugged it in, until it stops snowing this man’s work will never be done. He looks cold so he must really be committed to his work. Let’s not spoil his fun by telling him that snow melts.

This killer crocodile named Brutus is a saltwater crocodile about 80 years of age. He makes special appearances for the thousands of tourists who visit Adelaide River to catch a glimpse of this crocodile at least once. What makes this crocodile so precious is that it lost one of its legs while battling with a shark and is considered a true hero. This crocodile is 18 feet long and very shy to meet people. However, if you offer him his favorite food, Brutus will be out there to entertain you.

We’ve all heard about the eye of the storm, but what about the eye of the lake? This photo was taken of an almost frozen-over lake in Nebraska and the yet-to-freeze gap in the middle looks uncannily eye-like. While the central water forms the pupil, the thin ice that immediately surrounds it is what makes this eye look so realistic. The cracks offer life-like detail to a gray-blue iris. Whoever took this eye-catching photo deserves an award!

As fall approaches, the chlorophyll that lends its green color to leaves is broken down to be used for vital nutrients elsewhere in the tree. The leaves fade to yellow, before then turning red from the formation of anthocyanin. So, imagine how rare it is to come across a leaf that is exactly half green and half red! Not even a hint of yellow or orange. This leaf is enough to make anyone FALL in love with nature’s randomness.

Chopsticks have been the go-to eating utensil in East Asia for over three millennia. Usually used to pick up small pieces of food, this kid has decided that chopsticks are also totally great for eating large slices of pizza with. This kid must possess pretty advanced chopstick skills in order to pick up such a heavy food item with them. And to think we used to think it was strange when we saw people eating pizza with knives and forks…

How much do you care for your pets? A more appropriate question in regard to this picture would be, where do you draw the line between loving your pets and reducing your bank balance for them? Well, if you’re filthy rich, you won’t have to be concerned about that. People have extraordinary ways of cherishing their pets. This cute Yorkie Poo is all dolled up in her fancy carrier, which we initially thought were made for babies.

This picture of the ambulance was captured in Saudi Arabia. As you know, affluent Middle Easterns cannot survive without extravagance. You’ve probably seen princes riding on lions and being delivered expensive cars through helicopters. This is one of the special limousine ambulances waiting for a Saudi prince with a desire to go for his appendicitis operation in style! Our question is, how are they supposed to transport patients with saline in this?

This is not a scene from a movie, although it would have made a great poster for a title like “The Rise of the Phoenixes.” This image is actually really depressing, as all the birds were burnt in a serious blast. The orange glow seen on their bodies are sparks of fire that landed on them as they flew away. At least these birds escaped! If you were present, your torso would have exploded like a crushed watermelon.

As much as you would want Lady Gaga to wear these heels, we hate to break it to you that these aren’t a part of her funky dance-pop. This pair of bizarre horse hoof heels was created by Adrienne Maloof. Adrienne is an American shoe designer whom you may know from the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She apparently is inspired in her designs by fictional characters such as centaurs. Would you wear them?

After days of going fishing with your dad and all the hours spend with water and sticks, you would probably rather wish you were dead. On the other hand, there’s this guy from New Zealand. He picks up a living fish with his bare hands, and that too transparent! This is a Salpa Maggiore (Salpa Maxima) which is a gelatinous fish. It’s incredible how well structured the skeleton is. However, it seems like this fish has no brain. Sounds fishy!

When a male moth is looking for a partner, he release pheromones from tufts of hair. The female moth will lay as much as 50 eggs, which will hatch within ten days. This image captures one step of this process!