The Collaborative International Dictionary
Nostoc \Nos"toc\, prop. n. [F.] (Bot.) A genus of alg[ae]. The plants are composed of moniliform cells imbedded in a gelatinous substance.
Note: Nostoc commune is found on the ground, and is ordinarily not seen; but after a rain it swells up into a conspicuous jellylike mass, which was formerly supposed to have fallen from the sky, whence the popular names, fallen star and star jelly. Also called witches' butter.
Wikipedia
Fallen Star is an art installation by Korean artist Do Ho Suh on the grounds of the University of California, San Diego. It is a house perched at an angle off the edge of the main Jacobs School of Engineering building.
The house was installed at UC San Diego in July 2012 and has become one of the icons of the campus's Stuart Collection of public art. It is visible from Geisel Library and Warren Mall. The life-size installation weighs nearly 70,000 pounds and provides views of Geisel Library, Bruce Nauman's Vices and Virtues, the surrounding region and the campus's eucalyptus groves. The house can be accessed on Tuesdays and Thursdays by visiting the seventh floor of Jacobs Hall (EBU-I). A small landscaped garden with East Coast plants surrounds a brick path leading to the front door. Inside, the 15 ft × 18 ft house slopes at a 5° angle and is fully furnished. It has been given the fake address 72 Blue Heron Way.
Fallen Star forces visitors to juxtapose the comforts of home with the unsettling impersonality of a large institution. In 2016, it was the subject of a 50-minute documentary by the artist titled "Fallen Star: Finding Home."
Usage examples of "fallen star".
Sheets of cooling steam and ionized gas and glittering flakes of snow caught the last rays of the fallen star and threw them to the walls of Dyson, which were bright enough to navigate by.
The sand it was made from came from a fallen star in the Inner Sea.
But this was the fallen star: the ground beneath it glowed dull red.