The craziest part of 2020 has definitely already happened with the global pandemic, but this helicopter pilot discovering a weird man made metal monolith in the middle of nowhere in Utah might make it into the top 10 list at least. Try saying that sentence ten times fast.

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Helicopter pilot Bret Hutchings was flying over the area for the Utah department of public safety over the weekend and helping wildlife resource officers count bighorn sheep in the south of the state when he came across the strange object. Here’s what he had to say about it, speaking to local news channel KSLTV:

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

Photojournalist: @Photog_Steve5 pic.twitter.com/f8P0fayDIS

— Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) November 21, 2020

That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying.

One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it.

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!’

I’m assuming it’s some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big 2001: A Space Odyssey fan.

We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it.

Yeah, you can’t really deny that’s really weird, can you (even if the news report’s sci fi slant left a little to be desired)? The most likely explanation is that it’s some strange art installation that could have been set up years ago, with some observers likening it to the plank sculptures of John McCracken who lived in New Mexico and New York until his death in 2011.

Interestingly, his gallerist David Zwirner has not immediately replied to a request for comment, but even if it isn’t McCracken then there are countless artists out there who could come up with a similar idea. The fact is that the monolith was pretty much designed not to be found for a long time and cause a big kerfuffle when it was, so it seems likely that whoever is behind it will be more than content to just lay low in the background and let the drama play out without ever coming forward.

Unless of course it’s actually a promotion for a new Burger King meal or similar, which is also possible. What a mystery.

For more of the same, check out these 24 photographs you shouldn’t look at if you’ve got vertigo. Scary shit.