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.


Doc Brown's flux capacitor? A blinged-out religious relic from the future? A Tron 2.0 prop?


Jellyfish attacking an undersea monster? That would be cool, but the reality is much simpler, and more beautiful.


Ready for some mystery? The answer is...


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?


While it may look a bit like Galactica's CIC it's probably older than you are.


It looks like a gigantic bird hunting device but it will actually let you become one with nature rather than destroy it.


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.


No, that's not the moon...


A shot from the Iron Man sequel? A costume from a 22nd-century staging of Swan Lake ? My new back tat?


They aren't shiny radio dishes or deadly antimatter arrays in Area 51.


A huge version of Darth Vader's light saber? Close, but not quite close enough.


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.


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?


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.


Tattoo under a powerful microscope? One near some feminine naughty bits? No.


This is a tricky one. What's the QR Code on that flag our little Android friend is waving?




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