Angel hair

[schticknz]

A few weeks ago I was thinking about something or other, and what popped into my head ... Angel Hair (not literally of course, that would be a bit unpleasant methinks).

Blimey, I'd forgotten about this strange and mysterious substance since seeing a few episodes of that Project Bluebook tv series that was on TV in the 70s.

Now ... I've done a quick search on the internets and seen explanations for it being spider webs etc etc etc. But I thought I would throw this to the mercy of The Paracast forums anyway, and see if anyone has any Angel hair reminisences ... or has an alternate explanation for this (long forgotten?) paranormal material (?).

And points will be taken off for mentioning "really hairy angels" ...

And if you've no idea what the dickens I'm talking about check out this very brief wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_hair

 

[Jose Collado]

I wonder if anyone has taken any of this "angel hair" to be analysed by various independent institutions. I'm sure there's a rational explanation for it

 

[Aaron LeClair]

I wonder if anyone has taken any of this "angel hair" to be analysed by various independent institutions. I'm sure there's a rational explanation for it

Reportedly yes, attempts at least, but it disappears. So they say. I'm skeptical about it of course.


I'm more interested in "sky falls" where the same type of object, or animal falls from the sky.

 

[dorkbot]

Paul Hill addresses angel hair in his book. Mostly his comments are an admission that there is very little data to go on given that no samples have been properly collected and preserved. He gives specific technical advice on methods for collecting, preserving and analyzing samples if somebody should run across them. In short, for field collection you should get them in a very clean glass or plastic jar that can be tightly sealed and if possible, freeze it.

some excerpts:

"The witness said the material felt sticky to the hands and stuck together when handled."

"The witness took a sample of the material to the University of Massachusetts for examination. Under a microscope, the material was white and translucent. Its diameter diminished rapidly (under the heat of the microscope illumination) and no diameter was given. The only finding by the laboratory was that the material was not spider web."

from another case:
"Anyone who handled the material would immediately see a greenish tinge appear on the hands. The tinge would disappear immediately on washing, but otherwise would remain 30 or 40 minutes."

on physical testing:
"When a material goes directly from the solid to the gaseous phase, as does dry ice, it is said to sublime. Angel hair sublimes. This is a low-pressure characteristic of materials. Any material that sublimes at one pressure will instead melt at some higher pressure. That is, the material will assume the more typical three phases of state at the higher pressure. The fact that angel hair is tacky and very plastic at normal temperature and pressure probably means that at pressures not far above one atmosphere a liquid phase will be encountered. Thus the pressure storage of angel hair material in the liquid phase is an excellent possibility."

"This line of reasoning suggests that angel hair may be a liquid on board the various UFO types, stored under pressure and released to the atmosphere through small orifices, solidifying when it hits the lower pressure and temperature conditions of the atmosphere. The vehicle would thereby avoid discarding it as large liquid spills or as large chunks, either of which would be relatively crude procedures."

-Paul Hill - Unconventional Flying Objects