What Is This? The Year’s Most Mysterious Images [Image Cache]

It’s been a great year in pictures—some more identifiable than others. Here is a retrospective of 2009′s best mystery shots. Care to take another guess?

Each image links back to the original post containing the answer.

Hint: Once you find out what it is everything makes sense. Don’t over think it. [Click to see the answer]

Doc Brown’s flux capacitor? A blinged-out religious relic from the future? A Tron 2.0 prop? [Click to see the answer]

Jellyfish attacking an undersea monster? That would be cool, but the reality is much simpler, and more beautiful. [Click to see the answer]

Ready for some mystery? The answer is… [Click to see the answer]

The engine room of the next Enterprise? A glimpse at the heart of some new particle accelerator? The lens of a new US military laser? [Click to see the answer]

While it may look a bit like Galactica’s CIC it’s probably older than you are. [Click to see the answer]

It looks like a gigantic bird hunting device but it will actually let you become one with nature rather than destroy it. [Click to see the answer]

Some kind of circuit board close up? No. A nuclear power plant’s control panel full of gauges and labels? No, that’s not it either. [Click to see the answer]

No, that’s not the moon… [Click to see the answer]

A shot from the Iron Man sequel? A costume from a 22nd-century staging of Swan Lake ? My new back tat? [Click to see the answer]

They aren’t shiny radio dishes or deadly antimatter arrays in Area 51. [Click to see the answer]

A huge version of Darth Vader’s light saber? Close, but not quite close enough. [Click to see the answer]

Is this a cosmic dover over the skies of California? Maybe the aliens are telling us to chill out. Or perhaps the Holy Ghost went to grab some In-n-Out. [Click to see the answer]

Is this the entrence to Jason Chen’s secret lair where the Gizmodo magic happens? Maybe a place to lock up anyone with the swine flu? What on Earth requires a HAL 9000 to keep guard? [Click to see the answer]

At first glance I thought this was a NASA image of some sort, maybe a solar flare. I even wondered if I could get a high-res version in turn into a poster. Then I found out what it actually is. [Click to see the answer]

Tattoo under a powerful microscope? One near some feminine naughty bits? No. [Click to see the answer]

This is a tricky one. What’s the QR Code on that flag our little Android friend is waving? [Click to see the answer]