We might have uncovered the answers of a few mysteries this year, but if we've learned anything, it's that we still know very little, about a lot.
Despite our technological ability in this modern world there are many mysteries that continue to haunt us. How did Sherri Papini survive her kidnap? Why were these medieval bones buried in such a puzzling way? How did this NFL player defy gravity?
These are the greatest unsolved mysteries of 2017.
When a dolphin tour group discovered a species of octopus marching out of the ocean en masse on a seeming suicide mission, scientists were stumped. Thousands of octopi were found dead on various mornings in October — and it's not the first time it's happened.
"It sort of brings out this mothering instinct. You just want to save them," Brett Stones of the SeaMor group told National Geographic.
"It's quite emotional to see them flailing."
Experts are divided by two theories. One group believes the octopus, who only live for a year, are preparing for their end of life after laying their eggs. Though none of the corpses have been examined to determine if that was in fact the case.
But others believe the octopus are looking for shelter.
But the reality is, no one quite knows.
Unexplained booming sounds were heard everywhere from Alabama and Australia this year but curiously, no one is really able to explain how or why these strange noises have appeared across the Earth.
On October 10, a similar sound left Cairns locals confused. Many suggested it was an FA-18 Hornet plane was heard flying but a meteor research centre nearby captured an image of a fireball lighting up the sky at the same time.
Two weeks later, another boom was heard over the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia at the same time a blue meteor passed across the sky.
Some experts say causes could range from supersonic aircraft to meteors exploding in the atmosphere but after reported 64 locations reporting the strange sound, NASA's Bill Cooke admitted the origins remain unclear.
If you listen to conspiracy theorists, an unnamed geologist who "works for the government" told Earthfiles that "something is going on in the inner core of the Earth".
The curious case of Amelia Earhart's disappearance during her attempt to fly around the world 80 years ago has long remained legend as researchers hunt for her remains to this day.
This year, we may have gotten closer than ever before, in fact National Geographic said the mystery "of what happened to Amelia Earhart may be as close as it's ever been to being solved".
The publication used four bone-sniffing dogs who each detected human remains in the same spot on a remote island in the Pacific, Nikumaroro, Kiribati, which many believe is where Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan crashed on July 2, 1937, en route to Howland Islan, an uninhabited island north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean..
"The signals were clear: Someone — perhaps Earhart or her navigator, Fred Noonan — had died beneath the ren tree," according to the publication.
Still, Fred Hiebert, National Geographic's archaeologist-in-residence, said the odds of actually extracting DNA from a tropical environment such as Nikumaroro's are slim.
"It's a total disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never, ever be allowed to happen.
When University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier was arrested in North Korea little did we know that he would be sent back on his death bed amid a series of horrifying allegations in which US President Donald Trump said Warmbier was "tortured beyond belief".
Warmbier died six days after returning from North Korea with severe brain damage, after being sentenced to 15-years hard labour after allegedly stealing a propaganda poster in January 2016. But just how his body ended up so badly damaged remains a mystery.
Hamilton County Coroner Dr Lakshmi Sammarco said "we don't have enough information about what happened to Otto [in North Korea] to draw any concrete conclusions" about the 22-year-old's death.
Dr Sammarco said it was impossible to determine what happened to Warmbier's brain that cause the injury that led to his death.
"The family is looking for answers that at this point, we're never going to know."
"His body was in excellent condition. His skin was in excellent condition. There was no evidence of bedsores. … I'm sure he had to have around-the-clock care to be able to maintain the skin in the condition it was in."
Archaeologists have been left baffled by a mysterious ancient city filled with gigantic square blocks that lie over the Pacific.
Nan Madol is located just off the remote island of Pohnpei in Micronesia and experts are puzzled by the island, which consists of 97 individual blocks separated by narrow channels of water. They claim the blocks are "remarkably similar", but the reason for these gigantic structures remains unclear.
While the site was home to an ancient race, little is known about them or why they chose to build these hardy structures.
"Why would somebody build a city out in the middle of the ocean? "Why here, so far away from any other known civilisation?"
The examination, carried out by coroner Dr Gretel Stephens, lists the cause of death as brain damage from a lack of oxygen from an injury "more than a year prior to death." The manner of death is written as "undetermined."
Despite desperate pleas from his parents, we may never know what happened to Warmbier in the darkness of those North Korean cells.
The abandoned city of Nan Madol teeters on the edge of the Pacific island of Pohnpei. Learn more: https://t.co/7pmPF5p3WC #WhatonEarth pic.twitter.com/NfJjVBox1W
— Science Channel (@ScienceChannel) November 5, 2017
United States diplomats are sustaining curious brain injuries while posted in Cuba and the US government can't figure out exactly what's behind the astonishing international mystery.
The attacks were initially thought to perhaps be inflicted by some sort of unknown targeted sonic weapon.
The affected diplomats have sustained permanent damage to their hearing, mild traumatic brain injuries, and possibly even damage to their central nervous system.
The mystery over the bizarre situation only continues to deepen with baffled US officials claiming the facts and the physics don't add up.
Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds — loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping similar to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. Some victims woke with ringing in their ears and fumbled for their alarm clocks, only to discover the ringing stopped when they moved away from their beds, the AP reported.
More than 400 previously undocumented structures which cover the land in their thousands — or "gates" as they are called — have been uncovered by an Australian archaeologist.
According to Dr David Kennedy, the structures are anything but random; in fact, they are quite deliberate. To this day much of the conclusions are still speculation at best, but they are thought to date back as far as 9000 years ago and used by nomadic tribes as traps for hunting and farming.
The challenge for experts now is to study them on the ground. It could be decades until we find the real answer — until then, the Arabian secrets remain buried in the sand.
Sound and health experts are just as baffled as investigators.
Prof. David Kennedy spent nearly a decade studying ancient and mysterious stone 'gates' in Saudi Arabia's desert from his desktop, until he suddenly received the invitation of a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/KVwUJLinB7
— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) November 21, 2017
An international team of scientists have made the first baffling new discovery inside Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza for the first time since the 1980s.
A hidden chamber was discovered above the pyramid's Grand Gallery but the purpose for the room is unclear — scientists are yet to get access inside.
Mehdi Tayoubi, a co-founder of the ScanPyramids project and president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute said the team plans to work with others to come up with hypotheses about the area.
"The good news is that the void is there, and it's very big," he said.
"It could be composed of one or several structures ... maybe it could be another Grand Gallery. It could be a chamber, it could be a lot of things."
Barrister says prosecutors focused on messages to undermine Erin Patterson's family ties.