Commonly referred to as ‘angel hair’, the peculiar phenomenon has in the past been connected to both UFO sightings and religious manifestations such as appearances of the Virgin Mary.
“It fell during the afternoon,” said one resident. “I tried to inquire if aeroplanes flew over before, but no straight answer.”
“Me and a couple of friends sent it to be analysed – and the weirdest things happened. It reacts to UV light. It comes alive.”
The cobweb-like substance happens to be integral to the beliefs of the Raëlian UFO religion and is sometimes claimed to be a byproduct of the electromagnetic field surrounding a UFO.
A more conventional explanation however is that the material is simply spider silk or some other natural substance that has been caught by strong winds and dispersed over a wide area. Some spider species even use cobweb gliders to carry them over long distances.
The polarization of floating dust particles causing them to join together in to long strands is another common theory put forward to explain the phenomenon.
