The Claim
A strange jelly that falls from the sky has been found all around the world, and no one knows what it is.
Star jelly is the name given to a gelatinous substance that has been found in various countries around the world and resembles frog spawn except without the eggs. This strange material has been likened to other phenomenon like angel hair, but unlike some of the other more mystical materials found, this one has actually been analysed.
There have been reports of Star jelly for centuries, with the earliest coming from John of Gaddesden in the 1300’s who wrote about how he found some of the substance and for some reason thought it would be a good idea to use it to treat abscesses.
In the 14th century a Latin medical glossary wrote about the substance, describing it as “a certain fatty substance emitted from the earth, that is commonly called ‘a star which has fallen”. Its mentioned in various other Latin texts and even made it into the English-Latin dictionary of 1440.
But what exactly is it?
Well that’s the interesting thing, no one knows for sure. One of the the problems with Star jelly is that is seems to only appear early in the morning when there’s a reasonable amount of moisture around. Another problem is it seems to disappear very quickly after it forms, and even though it looks firm enough to handle, when touched it breaks down almost into a dust and just disappears.
This may sound rather odd but it has been found many times over the years and even samples have been taken from it. Reports from Scotland suggest that the material is nothing but frog spawn that a predator has picked all the eggs out of, leaving behind nothing but the slime. As for why it expands upon moisture it seems the spawn swells when making contact with extra water, and then breaks down quickly upon a temperature change.
This isn’t accepted by many though because when the National Geographic Society commissioned some scientists to analyse the substance, they found no trace of animal or plant DNA in the samples.
The problem with analysing more of this stuff is it only seems to appear randomly and you can never count on finding any, and since it disappears very quickly after forming, its very difficult to actually gather any. Below are a few documented findings of Star jelly:
11 November 1846, a 4 feet wide luminous jelly substance fell in Lowville, New york as reported by “Scientific American” magazine.
in 1950, 4 policemen from Philadelphia reported finding a “a domed disk of quivering jelly” 6 feet across and one foot thick at the center, but upon trying to lift it, the object fell apart and dissolved into nothing.
December 1983, Thomas Grinley, a resident of North Reading Massachusetts reported finding the substance all over the local area, within trees and all across the grass, it was even dripping off the local gas station pumps.
1994, various occasions of gelatinous rain fell across Oakville in Washington, witnessed by many of the local residents.
Autumn 2009, Scotland saw several blobs spread across the hills which seemed to form daily for just under a week.
February 2013, several blobs found at the HamWall nature reserve in England. There have been claims that this was frog spawn but it seems the substance was either not officially identified or they tried to do so and didn’t report on the results publicly.
As for what it is exactly it seems no one has found out yet. There’s the very real chance that some of the instances are indeed frogspawn, but some of the locations it has been found and the behaviour of the material would suggest otherwise. Until someone gets lucky enough to have some fall directly into their advanced laboratory, i guess we wont be finding out.
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