X-Files mystery after ‘space jelly’ discovered in councillor’s garden

Sorcha Eastwood challenged Twitter’s astronomers and biologists to explain the origins of the strange, translucent substance that appears altogether extraterrestrial.

Along with a picture of the ice-clear jelly, the Alliance representative posted the message: “Something literally crazy has happened. We found this in our back garden. I thought it was random ice. IT WAS JELLY. And completely TRANSLUCENT.

“Being a sceptic, I was trying to make up explanations...anyhow its STAR JELLY Glowing star FROM A METEOR SHOWER. OUT MY BACK. Are there any spacey or science people out there that can help?”

However, hopes of a major scientific discovery have been dashed by those in the know at the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium who replied: “Hi! While this looks amazing, unfortunately this is not something that has come from Space. The term Star Jelly has come from folklore. This substance is native to the Earth. Most things that enter our atmosphere burn up because they are so small.

“Meteor showers come from leftover dust of comet tails and are the size of a grain of sand/rice. The larger things to make it through the atmosphere are meteorites & are metallic in composition & are found in craters. What you have is definitely cool but not from Space sadly”.

Another Twitter user responded with a (disappointingly) down to earth explanation, saying: “Hi Scorcha, it’s almost certainly ovum jelly from a frog – frog spawn without the fertilised egg. It absorbs water in wet conditions and looks like jelly. It also implies it’s owner met an untimely end.”