Starting April 20, a team of scientists set out on NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer ship to explore the Marianas trench, the deepest part of the ocean. They’ve been searching through some of the deepest and least understood parts of the trench, where the ocean goes down more than two miles deep.
In those deep areas, living creatures have been relatively sparse. But on April 24, while exploring the Enigma Seamount (so-called “because we don’t know much about it,” the scientists explain), they came across the mesmerizing jellyfish above.
The scientists believe this animal belongs to the genus Crossota. In the first part of the video, they think it’s waiting for something to come by and turn into a meal—its arms are outstretched and ready to capture any prey that happens by.
Those bright yellow and red features? The yellow, the scientists write, “look like the gonads” and the red are radial canals, which are part of its digestive system. It’s gross and magical all at once.
Bonus finds: A very sad letter in a bottle, a lot of gold
Every day, we highlight one newly found object, curiosity or wonder. Discover something amazing? Tell us about it! Send your finds to sarah.laskow@atlasobscura.com.