Sphere.

Sphere (1987) is the sixth novel published under the name of Michael Crichton (1942-2008), the Harvard-educated physician, novelist, filmmaker, and creator of the television series ER whose books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide and been translated into forty languages, and who remains the only writer in history to have achieved simultaneous number one rankings in book, film, and television in the same year. The novel follows Norman Johnson, a psychologist recruited by the United States Navy to lead a team of scientists dispatched to investigate a massive spacecraft discovered resting on the floor of the South Pacific Ocean approximately a thousand feet below the surface, apparently undamaged and estimated to be at least three hundred years old, and the increasingly terrifying consequences that unfold when the team discovers within the vessel a perfect golden sphere of unknown origin and properties. The Miami Herald called it Crichton's best novel, and essential reading for suspense fans, while the Los Angeles Times praised Crichton's ability to keep readers guessing at every turn. The novel was a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a 1998 film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson.