Strange how something that "came from space" over a period of months only fell in India. LOL
Remember this? Kannur, IIRC.
"...may consist out of alien life forms"
What?
I'm no english professor but come on, my 13 year old could have written a better headline.
This is news? Peter Gabriel sang about Red Rain years ago.
How hard can it be to compare dust particles, to the stuff in the rain?
Oh, brother!
--we had "red snow" in high-country Colorado on Valentine's Day , 1966--IIRC. It had a much more terrestrial origin--Utah--
Don't know if this qualifies as environmental news, but it's pretty darn funny.
related topics:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/808563/posts
Some Scientists Think SARS May Have Come from Outer Space
LONDON (Reuters) | May 22, 2003 | Patricia Reaney
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Some Scientists Think SARS May Have Come from Outer Space
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Comets spread Earth-life around galaxy, say scientists
Cardiff University | 10 February 2004 | Staff
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Are There Aliens Already on Earth?
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Did Life Drip Down From Earth's Ancient Atmosphere
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Published: 17 oct 00 Author: STAFF
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http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39f732a6231b.htm
Scientists report 'alien' life
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http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a1bef65169c.htm
All Aboard the Meteor Express of Life
Source: spacedaily.com
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http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ab3f1b012f3.htm
[warming] Cometary impacts and ice-ages
Source: Astrophysics and Space Science
Published: April 2001 (275: 367-376) Author: Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe
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http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3acfed532bff.htm
keyword:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=panspermia
Ping
Hey GK....check this out.
TO ALL SCEPTICS: read the science article first.
Whatever they are: they are multiplying.
New biology of red rain extremophiles prove cometary panspermia
Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India)
Comments: 17 pages, 6 figures, see related paper astro-ph/0310120
SUMMARY
This paper reports the extraordinary biology of the microorganisms from the mysterious red rain of Kerala, India. These chemosynthetic organisms grow optimally at an extreme high temperature of 300 degrees C in hydrothermal conditions and can metabolize inorganic and organic compounds including hydrocarbons. Stages found in their life cycle show reproduction by a special multiple fission process and the red cells found in the red rain are identified as the resting spores of these microbes. While these extreme hyperthermophiles contain proteins, our study shows the absence of DNA in these organisms, indicating a new primitive domain of life with alternate thermostable genetics. This new biology proves our earlier hypothesis that these microbes are of extraterrestrial origin and also supports our earlier argument that the mysterious red rain of Kerala is due to the cometary delivery of the red spores into the stratosphere above Kerala.
FULL TEXT PDF
http://www.citebase.org/cgi-bin/fulltext?format=application/pdf&identifier=oai:arXiv.org:astro-ph/0312639
LOL!
They look like magnified grains of sand to me, and if they did come from a comet, then they were from earth anyway, since the comets origin was earth to begin with.
Let's put all factoids in a row (for the ones not reading the science article. You know who you are!)
1) The things look like cells
2) The 'cells' seem to contain proteins
3) In medium the cells multiply, an optimum temperature has been found at 300 degree Celsius.
4) 300 degree Celsius is far higher than any lifeform has yet been found to grow at.
5) The estimated amount that supposedly dropped down is 5 ton
6) The cells don't seem to grow good in solutions of
kitchensalt (NaCl) so they can't come from our oceans
7) They can survive iodine without problem and even seem to use it as food. No known earth microorganism does that.
8) They even survived 380 degree Celsius. Water turns into supercritical vapor at that 250 degree Celsius which raises the pressure in the cooker to about 220 atmosphere.
9) Different cell-cycles where observed, none of them like earth microbes (that i know).
10) New cells are 'growing' inside 'mothercells'. Once reached a certain size they slip out through the membrane and grow further.
11) No DNA was found. Either our techniques fail due to this being such a strange life form, or it uses something other than DNA.
12) The 'cells' absorb UV extremely strong. This could give it a protection against UV since it could prevent the UV from passing the inside of the 'cell' when the outerlayer blocks it. Ofcourse space is loaded with UV.
13) The 'cells' can grow without ANY PHOSPHORUS PRESENT.
No life form on earth can survive without any phosporus.
It is, among else, necessary for instance in construction of new DNA.
Great information! Thanks for the info.