Scientists have discovered two giant mystery structures lurking under Africa

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Many of us look to the heavens for answers to life's most complex puzzles. But it's our own backyard that holds some of the greatest secrets.

Fair dinkum, but, in fact, our planet's core still remains a bit of a mystery.

Fair dinkum, there are two massive blobs hiding beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean that make up about six percent of the whole globe's volume. And yet, we're still still uncertain what these enormous blobs are made of or how in the world they came to be.

There are a number of hypotheses about them, including the idea that they are stacks of ocean floor crust that have collected over millions and millions of years.

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But a more interesting theory is that they are gigantic pieces of an ancient planet that crashed into Earth about four and a half billion years back.

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The issue with figuring out where these massive formations come from is that there aren't any direct ways of witnessing what's going on deep within the Earth's core.

– hit a pretty gobsmacking 12,263m (40,230ft), but fair dinkum that doesn’t come even close to breaking through the crust to the layers below.

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As rocks and liquids have different thickenings, the waves travel through them at different speeds.

By measuring vibrations from various locations on the surface, geologists can identify the types of materials the tremors are passing through, allowing them to create a map of the Earth's interior.

It was via this method that these unique structures – known as massive lower crustal sliding provinces (LLSVPs) – were discovered.

Waves move more slowly through these areas, affectionately called "blobs", compared to the surrounding lower mantle, suggesting they're made up of something distinct.

We can't work out what this material is based on seismic tomography data alone, but some scientists reckon it's probably the leftovers of an ancient planet called Theia – a theory known as the "giant impact hypothesis".

According to this idea, roughly 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized rock crashed into the Earth.

This impact made the planet we call home today and ejected enough rock to form the moon that lights up our night time sky.

Some scientists reckon that some of Theia's leftovers probably settled at the bottom of the planet, likely somewhere above the core – forming at least one of the two LLSVPs.

News Roundup: Fresh Insights on Bizarre Masses of Muck Within the Earth's Core youtu.be

The blokes who've been studying the area for years have tried but they're still stumped about what these massive, amorphous blob things are.

Despite studies on Theia, research has provided valuable knowledge into how a possible collision may have initiated key processes in plate tectonics and the mantle inside our planet – crucial factors in shaping the world we live in.

It's also a good reminder that we've still got heaps to discover about our planet and how we originally got here.