Arguably the greatest scientific discoveries are the unexpected ones. The discoveries that defy explanation and for which no theory or model predicted. Yet, looking for such signals is incredibly challenging. How can you look for something when you don't know what it looks like? This has been a problem we've thought about a lot here in the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University and this week we're thrilled to share the outcome of a new research project in this area. Graduate student Adam Wheeler presents the "Weird Detector" - an algorithm capable of finding the truly weird signals lurking in astronomical data! Our paper can be found at: ► Wheeler, Adam & Kipping, David (2019), "The Weird Detector: Flagging periodic, coherent signals of arbitrary shape in time series photometry", MNRAS, 485, 5498 : https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.09213 Video materials and graphics used: ► Night sky time lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqUgqGdkrzI ► Milky Way animation by Stefan Payne-Wardenaar: https://vimeo.com/330625918 ► Oumuamua animation: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1737d/ ► Kepler video available at the NASA Kepler homepage: https://kepler.nasa.gov ► TESS video available at the NASA TESS homepage: https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov ► Binary Stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9GG1y_sk98 ► James Davenport starpot simulation: https://vimeo.com/155093319 ► Sunspot footage from NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory: https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main/item/43 ► Binary orbit gallery by Adrian Price-Whelan: http://adrian.pw/viz.html ► Earth-Moon tidal bulge animation by Kevin Gill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AHshzLquOU ► Flare and complex flare figures from Davenport et al. (2014): https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic0310c/ ► Comet video from https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic0310c/ ► TESS comet video https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13030 Filmclips, in order of appearance; ► Star Trek, The Next Generation ► Music from Neptune Flux, "We W