The Answers Elude Us: the Greatest Unexplained Mysteries

History, science, and technology have done wonders for explaining the world around us and the universe we live in. Despite all of the progress we’ve made, there are still numerous unexplained mysteries that we have yet to solve. This mysteries appear across history, throughout our modern day, and some of them show no signs of being solved anytime soon.

Join us as we explore a variety of mysteries across all manner of different areas both on and off this planet that we call home. While we may not have answers, sometimes the mystery alone is enough to make us wonder.

11 Mysteries That Have yet to Be Solved

These mysteries run the gamut from being oddities, to unsolved murders and mysteries of our universe. Some of these quandaries are actively being pursued as people desperately search for answers, while others have become the source of conspiracy theories and continued uncertainty.

The Taos Hum

Joe Mullins, a professor of engineering at the University of New Mexico, conducted a survey which revealed that roughly 2 percent of the town’s population is capable of hearing the mysterious sound. Other tests using various instruments were unable to pinpoint the sound or its source.

Mysterious sounds are nothing new in our modern society. There have been other instances of sounds like this around the world, many of which have been explained. Taos still remains one of the places where a true explanation has yet to be found. Theories ranging from people with “super-hearing” to “auditory hallucinations” have been posed since there are various explanations of the sound itself.

Vonynich Manuscript

This is an ancient manuscript that has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century. It is theorized that it may have been written in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The name comes from a Polish book dealer named Wilfrid Vonynich who purchased the manuscript in 1912.

The pages are vellum, and while some are missing, over 240 still remain. The writing moves from left to right and images are also found throughout. American and British codebreakers throughout World War I and World War II attempted to decipher it, but no one has been able to decrypt its unknown language.

The “letter-based cipher” theory states that this manuscript was written in some European language, but the language was put through a cipher before being recorded on the pages of the manuscript. Judging by the pictures and diagrams, it is believed that the book was meant to be a chronicle of early medicine topics, but these theories are based on the pictures alone.

Jack the Ripper

As one of the most famous serial killers in history, Jack the Ripper is the name given to a killer or killers who murdered women in the Whitechapel district of London 1888. The name first appeared in a letter that was spread across the local media, however this letter is believed to be a hoax meant to spread interest in the story.

A rash of killings involving female prostitutes from 1888 to 1891 led to the rise of this killer’s legend. There are countless suspects who have been considered as the killer. Recently, in 2014, one man claimed to have genetic evidence that proved the identity of the killer. A major flaw in the evidence ended this theory before it could get off the ground.

This unsolved mystery has been the subject of countless fictional stories and theories over the years, but the true identity of the killer has yet to be found. In addition, there are arguments that the killings were never connected to begin with.

Kryptos

Ironically, the last of the four messages encoded on the statue has yet to be decoded. The final message is one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world and while the sculptor himself has offered clues, the final passage has yet to be revealed.

Tamam Shud

Also known as the Mystery of the Somerton Man, this is an unsolved case where an unidentified man was found dead at 6:30 A.M on December 1st, 1948 on Somerton beach in Glenelg. The name refers to a phrase in persian tamam shud which means “ended” or “finished.” This phrase was found printed on a scrap of paper inside the dead man’s pocket.

It was eventually found that the paper came from the final page of a book called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The book where it came from was turned into the police and it contained a handwritten code that was thoughts to be a telephone number or possibly an encrypted message. This mystery is considered was of Australia’s most profound unexplained events.

An autopsy revealed only the time of death, but the man’s identity and the cause of his demise could not be found. Poisoning has been the most widely accepted theory, but it has not been proven. Despite international assistance and cooperation, the man’s identity and the cause of his death has yet to be found to this day.

The Georgia Guidestones

The ten guidelines engraved on the stones are as follows:

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity. Unite humanity with a living new language. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court. Avoid petty laws and useless officials. Balance personal rights with social duties. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

In 2008, the stones were vandalized with graffiti, messages read “death to the new world order” and other similar statements. The 10 guidelines have been interpreted as a list of “Ten New Commandments” but the true purpose and intent of the stones still remains a mystery.

The strongest theory is that claims the stones were built as a means of instructions for people who survived an apocalyptic scenario. The stones were built in 1979 at the height of the Cold War, which Brad Meltzer noted would have been a time when people thought that a nuclear war would break out. Therefore, the stone could have been instructions for survivors.

Even so, we still don’t know who built the stones or why they put them there.

The WOW! Signal

While Jerry R. Ehman was working on the SETI project at the Big Ear radio telescope at the Ohio State University, he discovered a narrowband radio signal on August 15th, 1977. This signal lasted for 72-seconds and originated outside of our solar system, somewhere in the Sagittarius constellation.

The signal amazed Ehman because it has the signature of an interstellar signal in the antenna used. This suggested that it was intentionally sent to him, so he circled the signal on a computer printout and wrote “WOW!” in the margin of the paper. The signal has been searched for constantly since then, but it was never discovered again.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

When Great Britain was colonizing the Americas, it was common for people to go missing on occasion. What wasn’t common was the disappearance of an entire colony on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. The colony was established in 1587 and was composed of 115 settlers. The governor, John White, left for England to get more supplies shortly after the colony started.

He was unable to return for 3 years because of political turmoil in Europe, and when he did return, the entire colony was empty. Only the word “Croatoan” was found, carved into a tree. There were no bodies, nothing to even suggest people had ever lived there. There are numerous theories suggesting what could have happened to the people of the colony, but the disappearance remains an unsolved mystery.

The Oak Island Money Pit

An island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada called Oak Island is home to an incredibly famous hole called the “Money Pit.” It was first discovered in 1795 and has since been a place where treasure seekers have come from around the world. As more and more of the pit was exposed over the years, it was discovered that there are wooden platforms built every so many feet.

At one point a stone tablet was found in the pit that contained an inscription. This inscription has yet to be translated. It’s believed that there is great treasure at the bottom, but the pit is booby trapped to flood every time explorers reach a certain depth. Over six people have died trying to explore this strange location and the truth of what lies at the bottom is still a mystery.

Theories range from Knights Templar treasure, to the Freemasons, to the infamous pirate Blackbeard as origin stories for the pit and what it holds.

D.B. Cooper

This name refers to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 airplane flying over Oregon and Seattle in 1971. He collected $200,000 in ransoms (the equivalent of $1,160,000 in 2015) and then parachuted from the plane.

Here’s the kicker:

He was never found. He managed to get away with the money despite an FBI manhunt and ongoing investigations. It is the only unsolved case of air piracy in American aviation history. Some people think that he never survived the fall, but others think he got away and somehow managed to continue living a normal life without anyone knowing what he had done.

Dark Matter and Dark Energy

One of the most shocking scientific discoveries of the 20th century was that matter as we know it only accounts for 5 percent of the universe. The rest of the universe is divided into dark matter (25%) and dark energy (70%). Dark matter is something that we know almost nothing about because it does not react to light, it doesn’t interact with our type of matter, so we don’t know it exists for certain. Scientists believe exists between galaxies and galaxy clusters, but we’ve never seen it. The reason we believe it exists is because of the apparent effect it has on these celestial structures.

Dark energy is even more of a mystery, but recent research has revealed that it could play a key role in the ultimate fate of our universe. This energy repels gravity fuels the expansion of our universe. These mysteries could hold the secrets to the universe, but they are huge question marks in our overall understanding of how everything works.

Final Thoughts

We have come incredibly far in our understanding of the world and the universe we live in, but it’s unexplained mysteries like these that remind us how much we still don’t understand. Be sure to share this article with your friends and share your thoughts with us in the comments below!