Star Jelly - mysterious gelatinous blob of meteor
When
we look at a beautiful meteor shower that passes through the earth,
probably not many of us who know that the meteors are also leaving a
memento for the man on the earth in the form of gelatinous substance
which is often called the Star Jelly.Star-shaped Jelly is a gelatinous substance that is believed to fall to earth as a result brought about by a meteor. This phenomenon is said to have been known since 1641 and is one of the most puzzling mysteries in the history of science.
Although
the idea of a meteor that brings biological Jelly looks like a
science fiction, but the intensity of the incoming reports for centuries
does not seem to be ignored.
Star Jelly in history
For example in 1641, an Englishman named John Suckling never mentioned about Star Jelly on one of his poems.
"As
he Whose quicker eye doth trace A false star shot to a mark'd place
APACE do's run, and, thinking it to catch, A jelly up do Snatch"Sir Walter Scott, a great English writer also mentioned in the novel he wrote in 1825, "The Talisman":
"And
thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through
the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearance of Splendour."In
an article published by Scientific American in 1846, a description of a
meteor shower is also associated with the discovery of this mysterious
Jelly.
"Looks
like its size (meteor) is greater than the sun and it makes the sky
became bright as day. And when the meteor had fallen, a number of
residents soon find its location and found a bunch of jelly with a
diameter of 1.2 meters."
From
the writings found on this phenomenon, we can know that from past
centuries people have been connecting Star Jelly with a meteor or
shooting star. This belief carried over until now.A more modern discussion about Star Jelly appeared in an article published in 1979 in Fate Magazine. There
called the Star Jelly is a substance consisting of extra-terrestrial
"cellular organic matter" which exists as "prestellar molecular clouds"
that crosses the space.
We may never understand the meaning of these terms are complex. But at least Fate Magazine has raised again the fantasies of extra-terrestrial beings. Some psychics even say that Jelly is the remains of animal space.
The discovery of Star Jelly - Witness Statements
For
centuries, there are tens to hundreds of reports the discovery of the
clumps of gelatin on the ground a day after falling meteor sighting or
meteor showers.
For example, in 1950, a large lump was discovered by Philadelphia police. The
policeman described the lump as "Jelly with shapes such as discs with a
diameter of 1.8 meters. Thickness of about 30 cm in the center and
about 5 cm around the edges."
According
to police, when touched, the Jelly is untouched soon turned into foam
and vanished in the air without leaving the slightest smell. The night before, the residents around the reported existence of a bright meteor passing in that area.
In 1994, residents in Oakville, Washington reported a "rainy gelatin" occurred in its territory. This event is even alluded to in one episode of the television "Unsolved Mystery".On 3 November 1996, a large meteor seen through the sky Kempton, Australia. On the next morning, the residents found the Jelly nodes in the yard and sidewalk in the city.
Report the most recent discoveries occurred in 2009 which found clumps of jelly in a few hills of Scotland.
Star Jelly - Theories
The
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality Engineering Jelly has
examined this and concluded that this substance is not toxic and not
harmful to humans. Even so, his identity is still not known with certainty. But
at least there are some allegations filed, but before, the researchers
had to eliminate this Jelly relationship with the appearance of a
meteor.
Jelly Star and the Meteors
In reality, meteors are almost never reaches the earth's surface. Most will soon be burned out in the atmosphere. As we know, meteors are generally made of stone or iron particles. If the meteor had elements Jelly, jelly of course it will soon burn up before reaching the earth. So Jelly is certainly not associated with a
meteor at all.According
to these researchers, the witnesses who saw the meteor will come to a
place that is considered as a meteor crash site and maybe they found the
Jelly that are already there before.This theory is quite reasonable since often Jelly invention is not accompanied by a meteor sighting the previous night. And if the relationship between meteorites and Star Jelly has been neglected, and matter whether this is actually Star Jelly?
Industrial Pollution
Some people assume that this material is the result of industrial pollution.For
example, in the case of the discovery of Jelly in Philadelphia in 1950
that I mentioned above, the location of its discovery is only about 800
meters from a factory.Then,
on August 11, 1979, Mrs. Sybil Christian of Texas found some purple
Jelly blobs in his front yard after the Perseid meteor shower the night
before. Then
the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to conduct research and
found that the factory produces battere nearby waste purple. So there may be a connection between the purple blob with a sewage plant.
Although
done with the approach of science, this theory can not explain the
report findings Star Jelly since 17th century, long before the industry
to grow in America and Europe.
The remains of the animal's body
The
Book of British Reptiles and amphibians, written by M Smith explained
that the Star Jelly is actually the remains of a frog oviduct. Oviduct
is the reproductive tract in the body of the frog that produces a jelly
substance that surrounds this amphibious animal ovum.
According
to Smith, birds and other mammals that eat frog oviduct usually leaves
which then turn into jelly when it reacts with air.But just as the theory of industrial pollution, this theory also has its disadvantages.Researchers from National Geographic that examines samples of Star Jelly found in America can not find the DNA in it. If the blob jelly that comes from animals, then of course there will be traces of animal DNA in them.
Moreover,
if the Jelly it is the remains of frogs that eat birds, how to explain
the invention Jelly with a diameter of more than one meter? How many frogs are eaten and regurgitated by a bird?
Nostoc
Another
theory said that the Star Jelly is Nostoc, which is a kind of
freshwater cyanobakteri that has the potential to form colonies in open
areas. If under normal conditions, the colony will not be seen by humans. But
when the rain falls, this Nostoc colonies will turn into jelly blobs
that could be misinterpreted as a new substance that fell from the sky.
However,
this theory does not attract too much attention because Jelly blobs
generated from Nostoc colonies were not similar to the Star Jelly blobs
found.
(wikipedia, blogs.howstuffsworks.com, subversiveelement.com)