From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 “Star jelly” (also called astromyxin, astral jelly, pwdr sêr, star rot, or star shot) is a gelatinous substance that, according to folklore, is deposited on the earth during meteor showers.Today, it is generally believed to be nostoc. * scientists have been unable to extract DNA from the substance.

*  Angel hair or http://www.crystalinks.com/angelhair.html

UFO fans probably already know about star jelly, (also called star shot or star slime), but lots of other people probably don’t.

Still, reports of quivering gelatinous masses that appear overnight in yards and on mountainsides have been occurring since medieval times.

The legends and lore that accompany such lumps of strange goo connect star jelly to the appearance of comets or meteors, hence the popular name.

But no one really knows for sure what these globs are.

In 1950, police in Philadelphia PA found a six foot mass of jelly that was later the inspiration for the famous horror/sci fi flick The Blob. When four policemen tried to pick it up, the brown jellylike mass dissolved in their hands into sticky goo. In 1979, after a Persiod meteor shower, a woman awoke to find her lawn covered in purplish lumps of goo that would she could not dissolve with a garden hose. Most recently, lumps of translucent jelly have been showing up in the Cumbrian Fells, a geographical feature of the Lake District of Northern England.

Samples taken of star jelly show it to be composed mostly of water, with no signs of DNA of any kind. A study commissioned by National Geographic confirmed the lack of DNA and the rapid evaporation. Even weirder, the gelatinous substance disappears entirely within hours of being collected. More than one sample was put away overnight in a test tube, only the have the analyst discover an empty tube the next day. A number of organisms are known to produce slime and goo as part of their natural life cycle, but what makes star jelly a mystery is that it is devoid of DNA that would point to the organism that made it.

So while debunkers can easily toss off a pat explanation (maybe that’s the wrong way to phrase it, sorry) ranging from slime molds to digested frogs to moss slime blown about by stiff winds, the mystery behind what creates star jelly remains.

A "weird" green slime said in folklore to appear at the same time as meteors hit Earth has been found in a birdlife park in Somerset.

The RSPB has appealed for help in identifying the slime, which is said to be scattered on grass banks close to pools and lakes around Ham Wall Nature Reserve near Glastonbury.

The jelly-like substance could be bacteria, fungus or toad innards, wildlife experts said.

Some believe it could be a substance that has been written about for centuries called star or astral jelly, which is said to appear in the wake of meteor showers.

Its appearance has coincided with a meteor strike in Russia and the harmless fly-by of an asteroid at a record distance from Earth last week.

Steve Hughes, the RSPB site manager at Ham Wall, said: "This past week we've been finding piles of this translucent jelly dotted around the reserve.

"(It is) always on grass banks away from the water's edge. They are usually about 10cm (4in) in diameter.

"We've asked experts what it might be, but as yet no one is really sure. Whatever it is, it's very weird."

Mysterious, purple spheres found in the desert:

A mysterious and heretofore unexplained purple slime in bubble-like form was discovered in the desert outside Tucson, Arizona, recently, and it has people abuzz trying to figure out what it is and where it came from. The mud-puddle-size blob consists of thousands of shiny, purple, gooey marbles that ooze out a watery substance when squeezed. Did the Purple People Eaters leave this mess behind? Aliens? Or is there a perfectly good explanation, like...air freshener beads? KGUN 9 in Tucson: has the story http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/189113371.html