The phenomenon of peculiarities on the sea has occurred for hundreds of years but science cannot decipher!

For hundreds of years, sailors passed on each other about a mysterious phenomenon occurring in the distant ocean: At night, while sailing / driving a ship, sailors saw a long, bright, blue light, glow in the middle of immense sea. Many ancient sailors felt horrified when they saw the "ghost-like" light on the sea at night.

Because no one could explain this, those who did not witness it, sailors who were hungry, tired and dazed. Centuries passed, to modern times, the maritime community still speculated about the giant, strange strip of light that only appeared at night on the sea. The common point after these events is that no one can explain.

"The Milk Sea" made many sailors speculate.(Illustration).

However, the French writer specializing in sci-fi story - Jules Verne (1828 - 1905), author of "Twenty Thousand Sea Under the Sea" (1870), did not ignore this strange wall and he said it is the term "The Milk Sea". And it appears in the Indian Ocean.

135 years later: The scientific world began to learn about real damage

In 2005, a group of scientists led by Dr. Steven Miller of the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California (USA), decided to investigate the real damage to the strange light strip at sea.

They used the data collected from satellite sensors to confirm the phenomenon of "The Milk Sea" reported in 1995 by a British merchant ship (SS Lima) in the northwest Indian Ocean.

On January 25, 1995, the Lima ship reported "on a moonless night, 150 nautical miles east of the Somalia coast, the sailor found blue-and-white light on the horizon. After 15 minutes of travel, both The strange bright strip of the ship surrounds it. A giant strip of light appears to make the ship glide over a strip of white clouds . "

Dr. Miller and colleagues used the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and its polar orbiting satellites to discover the strange phenomenon described by Lima's crew.

Satellite image of blue and white light is captured.

The images recorded from satellites show that, in the Northwest Indian Ocean, a huge band of light appears, about the same size as the state of Connecticut in the United States (area of ​​14.357 km²), on the night sea. at the right time that SS Lima recorded.

Decode the mysterious phenomenon of a hundred years

After affirming the stories that the giant ear crews on the bright strip of sea are real, the gangs began to study to find out the cause of this phenomenon.

After obtaining the water samples in the area where the giant blue-and-white light appears, the scientific community discovered in these water samples the presence of bioluminescent bacteria in the water, scientific name Vibrio harveyi .

Research shows that Vibrio harveyi is different from Dinoflagellates (algae that cause red tide): If Dinoflagellates emit short light rays, Vibrio harveyi produces a faint but more durable light.

This is because Vibrio harveyi uses two substances in a chemical reaction to produce light: One is luciferin or a light-producing substance; The other is luciferase , an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of luciferin, then produces light as a by-product.

Image under the microscope of luminescent bacteria Vibrio harveyi.

Unlike luminescent Dinoflagellates to avoid enemies, luminous Vibrio harveyi bacteria to "hunt" fish! The light that this bacterium creates is very attractive to fish. When ingested by fish, these bacteria drift into the fish's gut - which is the favorite "home" of Vibrio harveyi.

The challenge is left open .

The confusing point of the scientific community is that a luminescent bacterium with very dim light, and to create such a huge range of light, requires tens of billions of bacteria to gather together. The fact that bacteria gather together with such an unusually high density, science still has not clearly explained.

Dr. Miller said that with much more modern satellite systems today, he hoped, the luminescent seas would be recorded more by satellites, which would give the biologists a chance. The more definitive answer behind this strange spectacle!