Top 5 Mysterious Natural Phenomena That Science Cannot Explain

Some of the weirdest and most beautiful sights in the cosmos may be found right here on Earth.

Before humans invented the miraculous tool of scientific methodology, we devised a plethora of myths and legends to explain how these phenomena came to be, many of which originated in the spirit world through alien invasions and have played a role in many recent wishful-thinking-based attempts at explanation.

Here are 5 mysterious events that science cannot explain according to Treehugger and Reader's Digest.

(Photo : JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Singing sand dunes

The planet is singing! Perhaps not the entire planet, but a handful of sand dunes throughout the world in at least 35 deserts ranging from California and Africa to China and Qatar are certainly making a lot of noise. For years, experts have been perplexed by the groaning mountains, which sound like a deep buzz of bees or a rumbling Gregorian chant.

One research revealed that the distinct notes created by the sands depended on the size of the grains and the speed at which they whistled through the air, but experts are still baffled as to how the flowing grains of sand manages to sound like music in the first place.

2. Star jelly

At least since the 14th century, people have reported seeing globular blobs fall from the sky and land in fields and meadows.

Folklore interpreted the strange goop, also known as astral jelly, star-shot, star-slime, star-slough, star-slubber, and star-slutch, as a material deposited following meteor showers. Reports of the unexplained goop appear with startling regularity, if not frequency.

Nobody knows for sure what it is since it evaporates rapidly after it emerges and examination has proved difficult.

Science has not validated any definitive identification, which has varied from the paranormal to undiscovered fungus or slime molds to anything of an amphibious character.

3. Sailing stones

The enigmatic sailing stones may be seen in Death Valley's Racetrack Playa, where they appear to move on their own overnight, leaving paths in the dirt.

Scientists have hypothesized that magnetism is the source of the movement in the 100 years since it was first seen (although other, less learned theories implicated aliens).

However, the sailing stones were researched up and personal in 2014, and it was revealed that as night falls, the dry lake bed on which they sit gets covered in water, which swiftly freezes.

The ice has melted by morning, and this movement, along with the region's winds, propels the rocks inches or feet farther from where they were the day before.

4. Fairy circles

The Namib Desert of Namibia is home to strange circles of greenery, creating a landscape that statistician Corina Tarnita explained to Science Friday as looking "like a polka dot dress."

Measuring between 10 and 65 feet in diameter, these circles of barren-centered vegetation are not the work of fairies, or, according to local legend, gods leaving behind their footsteps.

Still, the true reason is unknown, with experts hypothesizing that they are caused by thirsty plants extending out for water in a dry environment, or that underground termite networks have munched the vegetation into shape.

A variety of variables combined to form the circles.

5. Ball lightning

It's unusual and difficult to anticipate, so researchers don't know much about it. It may continue for more than a second, which is unusual for lightning, but capturing a second-long flash of light to analyze in the lab is difficult.

Explanations have ranged from electrically charged meteorites to storm-induced hallucinations.

According to the Weather Channel, one hypothesis is that when lightning strikes anything, it bursts in a cloud of highly energetic nanoparticles, but for the time being, this is just speculation. If only we could approach Zeus.