The Daily Croissant

Strangely Round Rocks of "Unknown Origin"

Well, saying "unknown origin" is an obvious exaggeration, since it is widely assumed that they must be sedimentary concretions, and were created by cementation of mud stone, coastal erosion, time and elements, just like any other unusual rock formation.

Yet their bizarre cracked shells, often perfectly spherical shape and unexpected locations remain largely unexplained and keeps them regarded as a "geological mystery". Not to mention other theories: are they fossils? alien eggs? weird energy storage devices from a crashed alien ship? Some even say that they are the... Great Balls of Fire (that fell down on Earth in Biblical times).

By July in a typical year, the snow that covers the slopes of the Rocky Mountains has given way to grasses and wildflowers, leaving only the peaks capped in white. But 2011 has not been a typical year. As this image of the Uinta Mountains in northeast Utah shows, winter’s snow is lingering into summer. On June 26, the snowpack on the southern face of the range was 849 percent above average. The northern face had 892 percent more snow than average.

The image was taken by the Landsat 5 satellite on July 15, 2011.