From up above, it resembles something from a spaceship - large, shiny and strange-looking. And yet, nobody knows where it comes from.
A crew with the US state wildlife resources department first made the discovery when aboard a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter when they spotted a mysterious monolith sticking out of the dirt last week, the Daily Mail reported.
Measuring about 10 to 12 feet tall (about 3 to 3.5m), the shiny metal object was firmly planted in the ground, suggesting it wasn't just dropped from above.
Although there’s no official reason for the object being there, some suggest it could be have been constructed by an artist or a huge fan of sci-fi movie ’2001: Space Odyssey’ - the structure resembles the machines found in Arthur C. Clarke's story.
"It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," AFP reported the Utah Department of Public Safety as saying in a tongue-in-cheek press release.
News of the discovery quickly went viral online.
"This is the 'reset' button for 2020. Can someone please press it quickly?" joked one Instagram user.
"Up close it reads: 'Covid vaccine inside'" wrote another.
Because of the object is sitting below a rocky cove, officials have chosen not to disclose its location out of fear some hikers may try to hurt themselves while wanting to get a closer look.
“One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it,” pilot Bret Hutchings told KSL-TV.
The @UtahDPS helicopter was assisting the @UtahDWR in counting bighorn sheep in remote southern Utah Wednesday when the crew encountered something entirely 'out of this world'...@KSL5TV #KSLTV #Utah
— Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) November 21, 2020
Photojournalist: @Photog_Steve5 pic.twitter.com/f8P0fayDIS
“He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'what.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there – we've got to go look at it!”
“We were thinking, Is this something Nasa stuck up there or something? Are they bouncing satellites off it?,” Hutchings added.