{{Short description|Gelatinous substance sometimes found on the ground}} [[File:A_moss_(Grimmia_pulvinata),_with_"mystery_jelly"_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1182111.jpg|alt=image of white translucent jelly sitting on a small clump of moss|thumb|An instance of unidentified star jelly on ''Grimmia pulvinata'', a species of moss.]] {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}} '''Star jelly''' (also called '''astromyxin''', '''astral jelly''') is a gelatinous substance sometimes found on grass and less commonly on the branches of trees.<ref name="Goodrich">{{cite book |author=Samuel Griswold Goodrich |author-link=Samuel Griswold Goodrich |title=Tales about the sun, moon, and stars |page=259 |year=1848 | url={{GBurl|id=R61bAAAAQAAJ|q=%22star+jelly%22|p=259}}|quote=A gelatinous substance is occasionally found on the grass, dirt, and even sometimes on the branches of trees, the origin of which the modern learned do not ascribe either to stars or to meteors; but which they are divided as to regarding either as an animal or vegetable production. The botanists name it ''tremella nostoch'' and say that it is a fungous plant, quick of growth, and of short duration, but of which even the seed has been discovered; but the animalists, though differing from each other in subordinate respects, agree in affirming it to be the altered remains of dead frogs. "The quantity of jelly," says one of these, "produced from one single frog, is almost beyond belief; even to five or six times its bulk when in a natural state;" that is, when the frog is in a living state ... }}</ref> According to folklore, it is deposited on the Earth during meteor showers. It is described as a translucent or grayish-white gelatin that tends to evaporate shortly after having "fallen".
Explanations have ranged from it being the remains of frogs, toads, or worms, to colonies of cyanobacteria, to being the fruiting bodies of jelly fungi or masses of amoeba called slime molds.<ref name="Hughes-1910"/><ref>{{cite journal |url={{GBurl|id=xk0wAAAAIAAJ|q=%22star+jelly%22|p=90}} |title=Natural History of the Toad | journal =Philosophical Magazine | volume =64 | year= 1824 | page =90 |accessdate=2010-02-17 |quote=The substance known by the name of star-jelly or star-shot (Tremella Nostoc), found on marshy ground, is the decomposed bodies of toads or frogs, but more particularly the latter, the writer having frequently found the exuviae of the reptile connected with it, and he has also seen the lacerated body of a frog lying on the margin of a lake one day, and the next seen it converted into this substance, the atmosphere at the time being very humid and the weather wet, which appear to be necessary adjuncts to the formation of star-jelly. It may be objected that this substance is sometimes found in places inaccessible to frogs and toads, as the tops of thatched barns, hay-ricks. | doi=10.1080/14786442408644561}}</ref><ref name=guardian/><ref name="Reid-2009"/> Nonbiological origins proposed for instances of star jelly have included byproducts from industrial production or waste management. Reports of the substance date back to the 14th century and have continued to the present.<ref name="Reid-2009"/><ref name="Gaddesden-1502"/>
==History== There have been reports of 'star-jelly' for centuries.{{sfn|Fort|1919|pages=41-50}} John of Gaddesden (1280–1361){{sfn|Gordon|1959|page=467}} mentions ''stella terrae'' (Latin for 'star of the earth' or 'earth-star') in his medical writings, describing it as "a certain mucilaginous substance lying upon the earth" and suggesting that it might be used to treat abscesses.<ref name="Gaddesden-1502">{{cite book|author=John of Gaddesden|title=Rosa Medicinae/Rosa Anglica|language=la|location=Venice|year=1502|at=Folio 28|quote=stella terre, que est quedam mucillago jacens super terram, prohibet apostemata calida in principio}} There is another reference to ''stella terrae'', as a component in a medical recipe, on folio 49 of the same work.</ref> A fourteenth-century Latin medical glossary has an entry for ''uligo'', described as "a certain fatty substance emitted from the earth, that is commonly called 'a star which has fallen{{'"}}.<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last=Mowat|editor-first=J. L. G.|title=Sinonoma Bartholomei|language=la|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1882|volume=1 |page=43|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/62214#page/53/mode/1up|access-date=December 25, 2022|quote=Uligo, i. grassities quædam quæ scatet a terra quæ vulgariter dicitur stella quæ cecidit}}</ref> Similarly, an English-Latin dictionary from around 1440 has an entry for ''sterre slyme'' with the Latin equivalent given as ''assub'' (a rendering of Arabic ''ash-shuhub'', also used in medieval Latin as a term for a "falling" or "shooting" star).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Promptorium Parvulorum: The First English-Latin Dictionary |editor-last=Mayhew |editor-first=A. L. |page=435 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Company |series=Early English Text Society |location=London |oclc=2642049}}</ref> In Welsh it has been referred to as ''pwdre ser'' meaning "rot from the stars".<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|year=1993|title=Pwdre Ser|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of strange and unexplained physical phenomena|publisher=Gale Research Inc.|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofst0000clar/page/267/mode/1up|last=Clark|first=Jerome|pages=267–269|isbn=0-8103-8843-X}}</ref>
In 1910, T. M. Hughes ruminated in ''Nature'' as to why poets and ancient writers associated meteors with star jelly, and observed that the jelly seemed to "grow out from among the roots of grass".<ref name="Hughes-1910">{{cite journal |url={{GBurl|id=nHkCAAAAIAAJ|q=%22star+jelly%22|p=493}} |title=Pwdre Ser | first=Thomas McKenny|last=Hughes | author-link=Thomas McKenny Hughes | journal =Nature | volume =83 |year=1910 | issue = 2121| pages =105–106 | doi=10.1038/083492a0 |bibcode=1910Natur..83..492H |s2cid=3945564 |accessdate=2010-02-17|doi-access=free }}</ref>
The Oxford English Dictionary lists a large number of other names for the substance, with references dating back to the circa-1440 English-Latin dictionary entry mentioned above: ''star-fallen'', ''star-falling'', ''star-jelly'', ''star-shot'', ''star-slime'', ''star-slough'', ''star-slubber'', ''star-spurt'', and ''star-slutch''.<ref>See the Oxford English Dictionary, under the words nostoc, star, and star-shot.</ref>
The slime mold ''Enteridium lycoperdon'' is called ''caca de luna'' ("moon's feces") by the locals in the state of Veracruz in Mexico.<ref name=UFO>{{cite web |url=http://www.escepticospr.com/Archivos/uforings.htm |title=About the So-Called 'UFO Rings' and Fungi |first=Ángel M.|last=Nieves-Rivera|publisher=Sociedad de Escépticos de P.R.|accessdate=2010-05-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303190358/http://www.escepticospr.com/Archivos/uforings.htm|archive-date=March 3, 2016}}</ref>
==Scientific analysis and theories==
[[File:Oviducts of amphibians regurgitated by predators - Lindsey.jpg|thumb|250px|Oviducts of amphibians regurgitated by predators. (The black object in lower left corner is a cluster of eggs.)]] [[File:Yellow slime mold.jpg|thumb|250px|Fructification of a slime mold]] [[File:Enteridium lycoperdon, showing 'slime'.JPG|thumb|250px|The false puffball slime mold in its aethalioid jelly phase]] * ''Myxarium nucleatum'', a clear, gelatinous fungus that grows on decaying wood. * Observations made of star jelly in Scotland support the theory that one origin of star jelly is spawn jelly from frogs or toads, which has been vomited up by amphibian-eating creatures.<ref name="ScotNat">{{cite journal |last1=O'Reilly |first1=Miles |last2=Ross |first2=Nicholas |last3=Longrigg |first3=Sarah |title=Recent observations of "mystery star jelly" in Scotland appear to confirm one origin as spawn jelly from frogs or toads |journal=Glasgow Naturalist |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=89–92 |url=http://www.gnhs.org.uk/gn26_1/star_jelly.pdf |accessdate=6 August 2018}}</ref> The German terms ''Sternenrotz'' (star snot) and ''Meteorgallerte'' (meteorite jelly) are known to refer to more or less digested frog spawn vomited by predators (Schlüpmann 2007). *A related theory is that it derives from the glands in the oviducts of frogs and toads.<ref name="Smith-1973">{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Malcolm|title=The British amphibians & reptiles|date=1973|publisher=Collins|isbn=0-00-213029-7|pages=138|oclc=611949401}}</ref> Birds and mammals eat the animals but not the oviducts which, when they come into contact with moisture, swell and distort, leaving a vast pile of jellylike substance sometimes also referred to as otter jelly.<ref name="Smith-1973" /> * Scientists commissioned by the National Geographic Society have carried out tests on samples found in the United States, but have failed to find any DNA in the material.<ref name="Reid-2009"/> * Thomas Pennant in the 18th century believed the material to be "something vomited up by birds or animals".<ref name=guardian>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/jan/13/science.research |title= The blobs |work= The Guardian|first=Mark|last=Pilkington |date=13 January 2005 |accessdate=2010-02-17 | location=London}}</ref> * ''Nostoc'', a type of fresh water blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) forms spherical colonies made of filaments of cells in a gelatinous sheath. When on the ground, it is ordinarily not seen; but after rainfall, it swells up into a conspicuous jellylike mass which is sometimes called star-jelly.<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard|last=Marshall|title=Mysteries of the unexplained |year= 1983| url={{GBurl|id=MjqcKUX9x74C|q=Nostoc+STAR+JELLY}} |isbn=0-89577-146-2 }}</ref> * Slime molds are possible causes, appearing suddenly, exhibiting a very gelatinous appearance at first and later changing to a dust-like form which is dispersed by rain and wind. The colours range from a striking pure white as in ''Enteridium lycoperdon'', to pink as in ''Lycogala epidendrum'', to purple, bright yellow, orange, and brown.
==Examples== * A jelly-like substance was seen "after a luminous meteor" somewhere between Siena and Rome in 1652.<ref>A New Catalogue of the Fall of Stones, Iron, Dust, and soft Substances, dry or moist, in Chronological Order. ''Annals of Philosophy New Series'' Volume 12, pg 92</ref> * A jelly-like substance was found where a meteor had fallen to Earth in 1718 in Leti (island).<ref>The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 1:234, October 1819</ref> * According to a Philadelphia Inquirer story, police officers in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania saw what appeared to be a parachute drift through the air and land in an open field about 10 PM on September 26, 1950. According to various accounts, the officers said the object glowed purple when they shined flashlights on it, felt sticky when they touched it, and shortly dissolved leaving no residue.<ref name="PE">{{cite web |title=Pfft - It's Gone. Flying "Saucer" Just Dissolves |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-blog-dissolvin/24429425/ |website=newspapers.com |publisher=Philadelphia Inquirer |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> The story was "picked up in the national press as a sort of joke", and has been credited with being the inspiration for the 1958 film ''The Blob''.<ref name="Inglis-Arkell">{{cite web |last1=Inglis-Arkell |first1=Esther |title=The Blob Was Based On A True Story |url=https://gizmodo.com/the-true-story-behind-the-blob-1623120977 |website=gizmodo.com |publisher=Gizmodo |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref><ref name="Farley">{{cite web |last1=Farley |first1=Lloyd |title=Is 'The Blob' Based on a True Story? |url=https://collider.com/the-blob-movie-true-story/ |website=Collider.com |publisher=Collider |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> * On 11 August 1979, Sybil Christian of Frisco, Texas reported the discovery of several purple blobs of goo on her front yard following a Perseid meteor shower. A follow-up investigation by reporters and an assistant director of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History discovered a battery reprocessing plant outside of town where caustic soda was used to clean impurities from the lead in the batteries, resulting in a purplish compound as a byproduct. The report was greeted with some skepticism, however, as the compounds at the reprocessing plant were solid, whereas the blobs on Christian's lawn were gelatinous. Others, however, have pointed out that Christian had tried to clear them off her lawn with a garden hose.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/521/did-mrs-sybil-christian-of-frisco-texas-find-blobs-from-space-on-her-lawn |title=Did Mrs. Sybil Christian of Frisco, Texas, find blobs from space on her lawn? |date=31 May 1985 |accessdate=2010-02-18 |publisher=The Straight Dope }}</ref> * In December 1983, grayish-white, oily gelatin fell on North Reading, Massachusetts. Thomas Grinley reported finding it on his lawn, on the streets and sidewalks, and dripping from gas station pumps.<ref name=guardian/> * On several dates in 1994, "gelatinous rain" fell on Oakville, Washington.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spanner |first=Holly |title=What were the 'Oakville blobs'? |url=https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/what-were-the-oakville-blobs/ |access-date=2023-07-10 |website=BBC Science Focus Magazine |language=en}}</ref> * On the evening of 3 November 1996, a meteor was reported flashing across the sky of Kempton, Tasmania, just outside Hobart. The next morning, white translucent slime was reportedly discovered on the lawns and sidewalks of the town.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clark|first=Jerome|title=Unexplained! : strange sightings, incredible occurrences, and puzzling physical phenomena|date=2013|publisher=Visible Ink Press|isbn=978-1-57859-427-6|edition=3rd|location=Canton, MI|pages=338–345|chapter=Pwdre Ser|oclc=809537768}}</ref> * In 1997, a similar substance fell in the Everett, Washington, area.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} * Star jelly was found on various Scottish hills in the autumn of 2009.<ref name="Reid-2009">{{cite news|title=Nature 1, Science 0 as finest minds fail to explain star jelly|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article6840730.ece |date=18 September 2009|work=Times Online |accessdate=2009-09-19 | location=London | first=Melanie | last=Reid}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> * Blue balls of jelly rained down on a man's garden in Dorset in January 2012.<ref>{{cite news|last=Nelson|first=Sara C.|title=Mystery Blue Balls of Jelly Rain From Dorset Skies into Steve Hornsby's Garden|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/30/mystery-blue-balls-of-jelly-rain-from-dorset-skies-_n_1241534.html|accessdate=4 March 2012|newspaper=The Huffington Post|date=20 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Blue balls theories rage after Dorset storm mystery|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-16786822|accessdate=4 March 2012|newspaper=BBC News|date=30 January 2012}}</ref> Upon further analysis these proved to be sodium polyacrylate granules, a kind of superabsorbent polymer with a variety of common (including agricultural) uses. They were most likely already present on the ground in their dehydrated state, and had gone un-noticed until they soaked up water from the hail shower and consequently grew in size.<ref>{{cite news|first=Steven|last=Morris |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/feb/03/blue-balls-mystery-solved-scientists |title=Blue balls mystery solved by scientists | Science |work=The Guardian |date= 3 February 2012|accessdate=2013-02-20 |location=London}}</ref> * Several deposits were discovered at the Ham Wall nature reserve in England in February 2013.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-21498062|title=RSPB Ham Wall 'slime' baffles experts | work=BBC News | date=18 February 2013}}</ref> It has been suggested that these are unfertilised frog spawn, regurgitated frog innards, or a form of cyanobacteria.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-21511354 |title=BBC News – RSPB Ham Wall slime may be frog spawn, vet suggests |publisher=BBC News |date=19 February 2013 |accessdate=2013-02-20}}</ref> * In the BBC programme ''Nature's Weirdest Events,'' Series 4, episode 3, (14 January 2015) Chris Packham showed a specimen of "star jelly" and had it sent to the Natural History Museum, London, for a DNA analysis by David Bass who confirmed it was from a frog. He also found some traces of magpie DNA on the jelly which may point to the demise of the frog.<ref>{{cite episode | title = Nature's Weirdest Events | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02fbxw1 | series = iPlayer | network = BBC 1 | airdate = 14 January 2015 | time = 20.00–21.00 hours (17:25 minutes in) | series-no = 4 | number = 3 }}</ref> * In the Urbasa region of Navarra, Spain, specifically in the northeast of the Raso de Lezamen, star jelly has been observed repeatedly in November following substantial rainfall. It was found in wet grass, shallow ponds, and water-filled depressions. The substance was translucent, gelatinous, with no discernible odor or visible tissue, and disappeared within hours of observation.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.amescoayurbasa.com/2025/12/gelatina-estelar-enigma-medieval.html |title=Gelatina estelar: enigma medieval |author=Amescoa y Urbasa |date=December 2025 |website=Amescoa y Urbasa |language=es}}</ref>
==In fiction== Sir John Suckling, in 1641, wrote a poem which contained the following lines:<ref name="Hughes-1910"/>
<blockquote><poem>As he whose quicker eye doth trace A false star shot to a mark'd place Do's run apace, And, thinking it to catch, A jelly up do snatch</poem></blockquote>
Henry More, in 1656 wrote:<ref name="Hughes-1910"/><ref name=guardian/>
<blockquote>That the Starres eat...that those falling Starres, as some call them, which are found on the earth in the form of a trembling gelly, are their excrement.</blockquote>
John Dryden, in 1679, wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/216/0205.html |title=§ 5. His Historic Tragedies; 'Bussy DAmbois; The Revenge'. II. Chapman, Marston, Dekker. Vol. 6. The Drama to 1642, Part Two. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21 |publisher=Bartleby.com |accessdate=2013-02-20}}</ref>
<blockquote>When I had taken up what I supposed a fallen star I found I had been cozened with a jelly.</blockquote>
William Somervile, in 1740, wrote in ''The Talisman'':<ref name="Hughes-1910"/>
<blockquote><poem>Swift as the shooting star, that gilds the night With rapid transient Blaze, she runs, she flies; Sudden she stops nor longer can endure The painful course, but drooping sinks away, And like that falling Meteor, there she lyes A jelly cold on earth.</poem></blockquote>
Sir Walter Scott, in his novel ''The Talisman'', wrote:<ref name="Hughes-1910"/>
<blockquote>"Seek a fallen star," said the hermit, "and thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearance of splendour."</blockquote>
An unidentifiable substance that falls to earth during a meteor-type event forms the background to "The Colour Out of Space", a 1927 short story by the American horror and science fiction author H. P. Lovecraft.
Some observers have made a connection between star jelly and the Paramount movie ''The Blob'', in which a gelatinous monster slime falls from space. ''The Blob'', which was released in 1958, was supposedly based on the Philadelphia reports<ref name=blob>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/offbeat/bzt4.html |title=UFO Round Up |access-date=2010-02-23 |work=The San Francisco Chronicle |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090926132742/http://www.sfgate.com/offbeat/bzt4.html |archive-date=26 September 2009 }}</ref> from 1950 and specifically a report in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' called "Flying 'Saucer' Just Dissolves" where four police officers encountered a UFO debris that was described as evaporating with a purple glow leaving nothing. Paramount Pictures was also sued for this movie by the author Joseph Payne Brennan, who had written a short story published in ''Weird Tales Magazine'' in 1953 called "Slime" about a similar creature.
In a 2019 episode of ''The Twilight Zone'' entitled "Not All Men", a virulent star jelly causes the male residents of a town to become psychotic.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite journal|last1=Belcher|first1=Hilary|first2=Erica|last2=Swale|title=Catch a Falling Star|journal=Folklore|volume=95|number=2|year=1984|pages=210–220|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1984.9716316 }} * {{cite book|first=Charles|last=Fort|author-link=Charles Fort|title=The Book of the Damned|year=1919}} * {{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Benjamin Lee|title=Medieval and Renaissance medicine|publisher=Philosophical Library|year=1959}} * {{cite journal|last=Nieves-Rivera|first=Angel M.|year=2003|title=The Fellowship of the Rings – UFO rings versus fairy rings|journal=Skeptical Inquirer|volume=27|number=6|pages=50–54}} * {{cite web|last=Schlüpmann|first=Martin|date=4 March 2007|url=http://www.herpetofauna-nrw.de/Beobachtungen_FAQ.htm|title=Laichballen auf Baumstümpfen, Baumstubben etc.|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070821202927/http://www.herpetofauna-nrw.de/Beobachtungen_FAQ.htm|archive-date=August 21, 2007|website=Arbeitskreis Amphibien und Reptilien Nordrhein-Westfalen|access-date=13 July 2007}} Contains photo of slightly digested specimen.
==External links== * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/outdoors/articles/jelly/ The 'jelly' mystery] at the BBC. * [http://helvellyn.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/star-jelly-by-ullswater/ Jelly Sighted in the Lake District Oct 2011] Information on Sightings and Analysis in October 2011. * {{Skeptoid | id=4299 | number=299 | title=Star Jelly | date=February 28, 2012 | accessdate=13 March 2019}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Star Jelly}} Category:UFO-related phenomena Category:Welsh folklore