Mysterious Bright Purple Orb Spotted On The Ocean Floor (Video)

Scientists from the Ocean Exploration Trust aboard the research vessel Nautilus found a mysterious orb on the ocean floor, which they called a "purple blob." They filmed the small bright-purple orb underwater on the Channel Islands off the coast of California.

The researchers have been wondering what could be that object with bright purple color. They are supposed to be on the mission to study deep-sea corals. On the other hand, they were attracted to the said mysterious thing just hanging out under the protective overhang.

They thought that the glowing orb could be a marine invertebrate called tunicate, which is an animal with dorsal nerve cords and notochords. They also suggest that it could be a kind of egg sac, which contains an embryo, according to Science Alert.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a mysterious purple deep-sea orb https://t.co/rVN6Ww6r1p pic.twitter.com/wdgA0aTLFf

— Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) July 28, 2016

The mysterious purple blob is totally unidentified. One of the researchers said that he was stumped and had no idea what it could be. He cannot even give a guess. Another researcher said that it could be a kind of undersea spider egg sac.

In the video, there was crab that got closer in the orb and touched it with its legs. Then, afterwards, it went away from the orb. The Nautilus then grabs the purple blob using the remote-controlled suction tube, according to CNet.

The purple blob was sampled by the scientists. They stated that the mysterious orb could be a new species of nudibranch, which is a marine mollusk. It has soft bodies and colorful with bright shades of blue, orange and pink. The Nautilus team also noted that it could take some years for scientists to identify if the organism is a new species.