Mysterious Purple Orb Found On Ocean Floor [VIDEO] It looks like something from a science fiction movie, experts say it is a blobby, bright purple, mass that lives under the water. A lot of water. But what it is, is anyones guess. As for the scientists that discovered it, even they arent exactly sure just yet. This strange orb was found near the Channel Islands by the research vesselNautilus. The ship is a floating laboratory equipped with cameras that can peer deep down to the ocean floor. Researchers with theOcean Exploration Trustposted a video on Monday showing the unusual object. Researchers said the Nautilus spied a small bright-purple orb underwater in the Channel Islands off the coast of California, but even they are not sure what it is. The main focus for the vehicles Channel Islands mission is to study deep-sea corals, but the odd sphere attracted the scientists attention. The video includes a soundtrack of the researchers making real-time observations as the camera sweeps along. They call it a purple blob and then wonder aloud What is that? The researchers throw out some scientific names as possibilities before deciding to suck it up into a tube for a closer look. They wonder if it might be an egg sac or an embryo of some sort. Theres a moment when the new discovery is almost lost to them. A lone crab closes in on the orb and jars it with its leg, but the researchers of the Nautilus successfully grab the sphere using a remote-controlled suction tube. TheNautilus website offers an update on the oddball discovery: This unidentified purple orb stumped our scientists onboard. After sampling, it began to unfold to reveal two distinct lobes. This could possibly be a new species of nudibranch. A Nudibranch is a type of marine mollusks. They have soft bodies and some of them are quite colorful, appearing in bright shades of orange, blue and pink. Some have slug-like shapes, while others have small branch-like protuberances. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THIS AMAZING CREATURE. If youre looking for answers as to exactly what the purple orb is, youll probably have to wait for some time. The Nautilus team notes, It could take several years for scientists to determine if this organism is a new species. It seems that just when we think we know all there is to know, something always jumps up and kicks us in the seat of the pants proving that we are not near as smart as we think we are. Three quarters of the surface of the earth is covered in water, of that area, we have really explored less than 2%. There could literally be hundreds of thousands of species that we have never seen or will see just a few thousand feet down. Nautiluslive.org contributed to this story. 2016 R. L. Grimes 