Starry
As star jelly or Sternrotz one is colloquially gel or - gelatin -like substance uncertain origin referred to, which is as lump fell seemingly from heaven and, less often found on trees mostly in open terrain. In the English-speaking world, the phenomenon is known as Star jelly and Astral jelly , among others .
description
As already mentioned at the beginning, the shape of “Sternenrotz” is reminiscent of gelatine or jelly lumps. The color ranges from colorless to whitish, yellowish to (more rarely) ocher. The amount that is found also varies from incident to incident: sometimes there are only tiny amounts, sometimes very large lumps. “Starry red” is most often found during or immediately after rain showers, usually in early spring. Find reports indicate that the substance dissolves within a short time after falling to the ground. In contrast, it remains stable in water. Scientific laboratory tests have so far not been able to detect any traces of DNA .
exploration
The phenomenon of the “starry red” has been known for a surprisingly long time. As early as the 15th century , some researchers saw it as the "mortal remains" of falling stars . They called the substance Uligo ( Latin for “slime” or “broth”) and Sterre slime ( old English for “star slime ”). Other researchers saw it as the excrement of stars. More skeptical scientists suspected early on that “starry red” were more of earthly origin and possibly the strangled food remains of birds.
Possible origin
In many cases "Sternenrotz" is strangled frog spawn that birds of prey and herons find it very difficult to digest. During digestion, the frogs' actual eggs are destroyed and only the spawn remains. In other cases, the find turns out to be the product of Nostoc bacteria. These bacteria naturally form felt-like carpets that swell up into lumps of gel on contact with rain (similar to hydrogel ). A third possibility of origin are so-called slime molds, the fruiting bodies of which excrete a spore-filled gelatine when the fruit is ripe . Since many slime molds thrive on moist bark, this explains the findings of "starry red" on trees.
According to folklore, these are frozen slime meteorites that come from space . However, this is countered by the fact that any form of liquid body would evaporate immediately upon entering the earth's atmosphere. Deviating interpretations ascribe “Sternenrotz” a paranormal origin.
literature
- Miles O'Reilly, Nicholas Ross, Sarah Longrigg: Recent observations of "mystery star jelly" in Scotland appear to confirm one origin as spawn jelly from frogs or toads . In: The Glasgow Naturalist , 26th Edition (1st quarter), ISSN 0373-241X , pp. 89-92.
- Vladimir L. Bychkov, Gennady V. Golubkov, Anatoly I. Nikitin: The Atmosphere and Ionosphere: Elementary Processes, Monitoring, and Ball Lightning . Springer-Verlag Berlin / New York 2014, ISBN 9783319052397 , pp. 368–374.