Have Swedish Treasure Hunters Just Discovered The Millennium Falcon On The Sea Floor?

Some readers may be upset by the content herein, as this doesn’t exactly involve APIs, Android, or SDKs, but it was just too good not to share. The international media has been abuzz today with some unusual news from Sweden. The “Ocean Explorer Team”, a Swedish expedition plumbing the Baltic Sea for underwater treasure, has discovered what looks to be the Millennium Falcon on the seafloor between Finland and Sweden.

Now, clearly it was only a matter of time before Han Solo misunderstood his co-pilot’s roars and growls and took a wrong turn right into the ocean. But, based on the sonar imaging conducted by the Swedish research crew, it really does look like they’ve found something right out of George Lucas’ imagination.

In reality, based on the somewhat blurry images, no one is quite sure what exactly the object is; its mysterious dimensions have already caused quite a bit of speculation, and of course UFO enthusiasts are already preparing their “I told ya so” stories. Whatever it may be, its seemingly circular shape is somewhat of an anomaly for the sea floor.

Peter Lindberg, the leader of these expeditions said, via the Ocean Explorer’s website, that he had “never seen anything like it in his hundreds of hours watching sonar images of the sea floor”. And while the treasure hunter was not willing to say that it was extraterrestrial in origin, he did venture that it might be something like a “new Stonehenge”.

In conference with local Swedish media, Lindberg said that the submerged mystery object looks to be about 60 meters across — about twice the size of the Millennium Falcon. Striations in the ocean floor around the object appear to suggest that the spaceship (or “object”) skidded to its current resting place.

Though the more likely explanation is that the object is actually the turret of a sunken battleship or the ring of an underwater volcano. The Swedish team had originally planned to let mystery reign, as budgetary restraints did not make room for a deep dive, but donations have come flooding in and the team is now planning a second voyage to investigate, according to CNET.

Of course, it is true that, in spite of the mind-blowing technology we use and dream up every day, we’ve only explored 5 percent of the ocean, so in reality we have no idea what the hell is out there. After all, have you seen some of these deep sea creatures? We’ve already discovered The Blob living down there, so maybe a UFO isn’t that outlandish. If you squint your eyes enough.

So, maybe, there’s an outside chance that, when Lindberg’s Swedish submersible arrives at the ocean floor, it will find Chewy and Han arguing over directions like an old married couple. Or maybe it’s just a giant hamburger, hard to be sure. Either way, we leave it up to technology to solve these heady mysteries.

Image credit: Ocean Explorer/Peter Lindberg