What happened
On October 27, 1954, Fiorentina was playing a friendly match against Pistoiese at the stadium in Florence. After 2 p.m., the fans, followed by the players, began staring at the sky: shining objects, described as eggs or cigars, were moving over the stadium, alternating between slow and very fast motion. The match was halted for several minutes. White, sticky filaments began falling from the sky and disintegrated shortly afterward – so-called “angel hair.” A sample was collected and handed over for analysis at the University of Florence, where chemist Giovanni Canneri found boron, silicon, calcium, and magnesium, among other elements. On the same day, similar objects and filaments were reported in other towns in Tuscany.
Witnesses
About 10,000 fans, the players of both teams, and the referees; among them Fiorentina player Ardico Magnini, who recalled the event years later.
Explanations and hypotheses
The most widely accepted explanation links the “angel hair” to the autumn migration of spiders, which glide on long strands of silk, sometimes forming shining clusters in the air. Such a cloud of threads could also account for some of the glittering “objects.” Critics of this hypothesis point out that the analysis found components atypical of spider silk and that descriptions of fast maneuvers do not fit drifting threads.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.