(Image Source: BBC)

BY LAUREN ZIMA

A British man named Steve Hornsby has blue balls -- blue balls of mysterious jelly, that is, in his yard. But what are they -- and how did they get there? The Guardian has his story:

“Hornsby, an aircraft engineer, said: ‘ … the sky went very dark and then a strange yellow colour. There was then a short, sharp hail storm that lasted for about 20 seconds. … then I spotted something on the lawn and it looked like broken glass.”

What Hornsby found covering his lawn were about 20 gelatinous, blue spheres. He says they were definitely not there before the storm. Hornsby says they have a hard exterior and a softer inside -- they don’t smell, they don’t float. He has one idea about what the balls could be.

“I think it might be some kind of atmospheric pollution that’s been caught up in the hail stones and it’s solidified. ... It’s almost impossible to pick up -- you have to scoop it up, really, and it just falls to pieces.”

But, the BBC reports the Met Office says the balls are, quote, “not meteorological.” The Sun has other speculation.

“A scientist at his local university suggested they may be eggs that were taken from the sea by a bird that dropped them over Steve's house in the hail storm. But this seems unlikely as they are transparent and there are no signs of eggs or an embryo inside.”

So, that idea might be out too. Doubtful News has one more theory -- that the balls are ‘hydrogel balls’ used for planting.

“ … these are described as ‘Crystal Soil’ – a new type of green environmental material, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium … can absorb water up to 50-100times of its original weight, and after expansion it looks colorful and brilliant.”

The gel has been sent to a university for testing.