Since the discovery of the mysterious blue balls that fell from the sky over Bournemouth last week, the internet and media have been rife with speculation as to what could have caused the strange phenomenon.
Following a hail storm last Thursday Steve Hornsby found around 20 jelly-like blue balls, approximately three centimetres in diameter, scattered around his Dorset garden.
The BBC news website featured the following video which seemed to quickly capture the imagination of the public and promptly became the most watched video on the site.
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On Monday Bournemouth University took up an invitation to collect the spheres in order to investigate their origin.
Research assistant at Bournemouth University’s school of applied sciences, Josie Pegg has done several newspaper and live radio interviews since putting forward her theory that the balls might be marine invertebrate eggs.
Ms Pegg said: “The email from the BBC came round last Friday afternoon and among the applied sciences staff we were all putting forward our ideas as to what it could possibly be.
“It was very much a Friday afternoon pot luck guess that got me involved in the blue balls, it’s just a bit of fun really.
“I’ve spent a reasonable amount of my life looking at plankton, and you do get a lot of jelly balls that look just like these in it.”
Preliminary analysis has debunked the fish egg theory as examination under a high-power microscope shows that the balls are not biological, leaving only the possibility that the spheres are man (or possibly alien) made.
The balls are currently undergoing a chemical analysis in order to determine their make up.
Several news outlets from the UK, India and Australia have featured the story and speculation as to the origin of the balls has been wide spread.
One blog questioned whether they were connected to a passing asteroid, while others have suggested a link to the aviation industry.
Whatever the answer Bournemouth University are hoping that they can get to the bottom of it.
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