Rare Yellow Albino Turtle Saved in Western India

Rare Yellow Albino Turtle Saved in Western India
TT
20

Rare Yellow Albino Turtle Saved in Western India

Rare Yellow Albino Turtle Saved in Western India

A bizarre turtle that is bright yellow has been spotted in a village pond in West Bengal, India. The rare animal is afflicted with a form of albinism, which affects its coloration and has been compared online to melted cheese on a burger. It belongs to a rare species called the Indian flap shell turtle.

Sneha Dharwadka posted images of the turtle on Twitter and suggested two potential explanations for its bizarre coloration. "It's an albino kind whose peculiar yellow color may be caused by either some genetic mutation or congenital disorder due to absence of tyrosine pigment," he says.

According to The Daily Mail, the Indian flap shell turtle, which is normally green, is typically found in South Asia and is between 9 to 14 inches long. In August, a similar animal of the same species was discovered in Nepal. At the time it was compared to a mythological incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu.

These two events make up just the fifth and sixth sightings of albinism in this species.

Kamal Devkota, a reptile expert who documented the previous find, said the reptile had a deep spiritual significance. "Not only golden animals but turtles overall have significant religious and cultural value in Nepal," he said.

"It is believed that Lord Vishnu took the form of a turtle to save the universe from destruction in his incarnation. In Hindu mythology, the upper shell of the turtle denotes the sky and lower shell denotes earth," he explained. Vishnu's turtle avatar, known as Kurma, is today worshipped in a number of temples in India. The golden turtle owes its remarkable color to chromatic leucism — a condition characterized by a loss of color pigmentation. Leucism usually results in white, pale, or patchy skin, but in this case it leads to yellow pigments.



Newly Spotted Comet Is Third Interstellar Object Seen in Our Solar System

 This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
TT
20

Newly Spotted Comet Is Third Interstellar Object Seen in Our Solar System

 This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This undated diagram shows the trajectory of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system, released by NASA on July 2, 2025. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Astronomers are tracking a newly spotted comet hailing from parts unknown, only the third time such an interstellar object has been observed visiting our solar system.

According to US space agency NASA, the interloper - named 3I/ATLAS - was first spotted on Tuesday by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. Astronomers said its unusual trajectory indicated it had ventured from beyond our solar system.

Journeying at a speed of around 37 miles (60 km) per second from the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, 3I/ATLAS is presently located about 420 million miles (670 million kilometers) from Earth.

"Beyond that we do not know very much, and there are many efforts underway to observe this object with larger telescopes to determine composition," University of Hawaii astronomer Larry Denneau, co-principal investigator for ATLAS, said on Thursday.

The only other such interstellar visitors previously observed by astronomers were objects called 1I/'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-uh-MOO-uh), detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

"The comet has some similarities to 2I/Borisov in that it appears to be an icy comet, but it is much larger, possibly 10 km (6.2 miles) in diameter," Denneau said.

"It currently has a faint coma," Denneau added, referring to the cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet's nucleus, "but the coma and tail may increase dramatically as the object comes closer to the sun. Its closest approach to the sun will be later this year, when it will come inside the orbit of Mars. We don't know what will happen, so that's exciting."

Astronomers said the comet poses no threat to Earth and will never come closer than 150 million miles (240 million km) away, equivalent to more than 1-1/2 times the distance between Earth and the sun. It is currently located about 416 million miles (670 million km) from the sun and will reach its closest approach to the sun around October 30, when it will be about 130 million miles (210 million km) away from our star.

The ATLAS network is a NASA-funded telescope survey built and operated by the University of Hawaii, with five telescopes around the world that scan the night sky continuously to look for objects that could threaten Earth.