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Among the strange things that have been reported as falling from the sky throughout human history, one of the strangest is known as " Star Jelly". Like angel hair, star jelly usually sublimes when it is attempted to be collected, but what is most notable about star jelly is that it is almost always found in the vicinity where a meteorite has been reported as fallen. That star jelly is nothing more than "pond scum" caught up in a whirlwind is another example of debunking a phenomenom by ignoring awkward evidence, in this case that the substance is usually found when people have gone looking in the area where a meteorite has been seen to fall. |
Selected Cases |
A fiery globe fell on the island of Lethy, India in 1819. Searchers went to the site where the meteorite was seen to have fallen and found a gelatinous material there which quickly disappeared. " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1:234 October - 1819" |
A luminous meteor was seen to fall (somewhere) in Italy in 1652. Once again, Star Jelly was found where it had landed, this particular sample having a dull yellowish color and a foul odor to it. " Annals of Philosophy, New Series 12:93, August 1826" |
A foul smelling jelly like substance fell over large areas of Southern Ireland in the winter and early spring of 1696. According to the Bishop of Cloyne it was " soft, clammy and a dark yellow color". "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 19: 224-253, May 1696" |
On January 21, 1803, a shooting star was seen to have fallen to earth in Silesia, between Bars'dorf and Freiburg (now Swiedbodzice), it's trajectory was low and witnesses heard a whizing soud as it passed overhead. For some time the meteorite seemed to be burning, thus its point of impact was easily observed. In the morning, a mass of jelly like material was found at the landing place. "Report of the thirtieth meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science 30: 62-63, 1860" |
A foul smelling object covered with a clothlike nap fell at Amherst, Massachusets on August 13, 1819. It was examined by Professor Russel Graves, who removed the nap and discovered a "buff-colored, pulpy substance" beneath it. Upon exposure to the air the substance became a " livid color, resembling venous blood". The object was said to have fallen with a bright light. " Annual Register, 63:687, 1821" |
Where the citizens of Rahway, New Jersey saw a "fiery rain" fall to the ground on November 13, 1833, they found lumps of a dark yellow, foul smelling jelly. A woman milking a cow in West Point, New York, on the same day saw something land "with a splash" a few feet beside her. It was a round, flattened mass the size of a tea cup and perfectly transparent. This occurred at sunrise. She returned around 10 a.m. with some friends but found that the jelly had disappeared. Where it had landed there were some particles the size of grains of sand, but they disintegrated and disappeared when they tried to pick them up. These incidents were reported in conjunction with a meteor shower that appeared over the Eastern US on 11/13. " The American Journal of Science and Arts, 1:363-411 January 1834" |
Nut sized lumps of odorless, gray resinous matter fell on Vilna, Lithuania, during a rainstorm on April 4, 1846. When the material was burned, it released a pervasive sweet smell. After being soaked in water for more than 24 hours it swelled and became completely gelatinous. " Comptes Rendus hebdomadaries des se'ances del 'acadademie des sciences, 23:542" |
On November 11, 1846, a luminous object estimated at 4 feet in diameter fell at Loweville, New York, leaving behind a heap of foul - smelling luminous jelly that disappeared quickly. Scientific American 2:79 November 28, 1846 |
A yellowish substance fell on Genoa, Italy, on the morning of February 14, 1870. It was analyzed by M.G. Boccardo and Professor Castellani of the Genoa Technical Institute and found to contain 66% sand (mostly silica type, and some of clay), 15 % iron oxide (rust), 9 % carbonate of lime, 7 % organic matter, and the rest water. The organic matter contained particles resembling spores, grains of starch, fragments of diatoms (forms of algae whose cell walls contain silica), and unidentified, cobalt blue globules. "The Journal of the Franklin Institute, 3:11 - 12, July, 1870" |
An edible substance consisting of small yellow spherules, white on the inside, fell over an area of some three square miles in the neighborhood of Mardin and Diyarbakir, Turkey, in August of 1890. The local people used it to make bread and said it was easily digested. Botanists declared the substance to possibly be a lichen, perhaps lecanora esculenta. "Nature, 43: 255, January 15, 1891" |
Police officers John Collins and Joe Keenan were cruising the streets of Philadelphia in their patrol car on the night of September 26, 1950. As they made their way down a quiet side street near Vare Avenue and 26th Street, their headlights picked up a strange shimmering object that seemed to be coming to Earth in an open field about half a block in head of them. When they went to investigate, thei flashlights revealed a domed disk of quivering jelly, 6 feet in diameter, one foot thick at the center and an inch or two near the edge. They had a curious feeling that the thing was alive! They turned off their flashlights and saw the thing glowed with a dull purple color. And then they radioed for help. They were soon joined by Sgt. Joe Cook and patrolman James Cooper. Sergeant Cook suggested they try and pick the thing up, but when Officer Collins attempted to do so the thing fell apart in his hands, like gelatin. The fragments that stuck to his hands soon evaporated, leaving behind only a sticky, odorless scum. Within a half hour of Cooper and Cook arriving the entire mass had evaporated. "Frank Edwards: Strange World, page 344" |
