Yes, the weird news never stop.

A recent NASA video which was recorded by NASA’s STEREO A satellite seems to show a strange anomaly near the planet Mercury. NASA’s satellite was recording our Sun’s coronal mass ejection (CME) and unknowingly captured what appears to be a large invisible object near Mercury. As the flare from the CME spans across the universe, it appears to uncover the “invisible” object. Kind of like a sonar blip.

The video, Uploaded by siniXster to Youtube, states:

Huge cloaked UFO next to Mercury on SECCHI HI1-A on 12/01/11, appears when a CME hits it. Go to SECCHI and record this before it disappears.

Here’s the link
http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=js_secchi_day

Nice catch sinisXster! Now, for the scientific explanation as to what this strange object is.

According to Nathan Rich, lead ground system engineer at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, there is an explanation to this strange image. Gizmodo contacted Mr. Rich, who explains:

The answer, according to Nathan Rich, lead ground system engineer at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, the explanation is in the way the images are post-processed. Talking to Little Mysteries’ Natalie Wolchover, Rich said that these are “artifacts in the background where the planet was on the previous day” which then show up as residual pixels in the processed image:

The pixels which form the two parallel lines are where the circle from the planet and the bleeding pixels (cross-like features) overlap as it progresses across the field.

Sounds plausible. But why does NASA deal with images that contain ‘residual pixels’? I would think that their technology and equipment should be more, how should I say this… more advanced than my iPhone.

I kid. I’m sure sending images from space to a lab on Earth is a tricky beast. So I guess we take their explanation and keep crossing our fingers for the day NASA finds intelligent life outside our planet. Or until they break the news and tell us that there has been a fleet of UFOs stationed outside our atmosphere for decades now.