COOL! Evidence of Extraterrestial Life??? (PopSci Article on 'Red Rain')

[Beetwasher]

Is It Raining Aliens?

Nearly 50 tons of mysterious red particles showered India in 2001. Now the race is on to figure out what the heck they are

As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis’s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens. In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples—water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis’s home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001—contain microbes from outer space.

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600˚F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250˚F.) So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

Last winter, Louis sent some of his samples to astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at Cardiff University in Wales, who are now attempting to replicate his experiments; Wickramasinghe expects to publish his initial findings later this year.

Meanwhile, more down-to-earth theories abound. One Indian government investigation conducted in 2001 lays blame for what some have called the “blood rains” on algae. Other theories have implicated fungal spores, red dust swept up from the Arabian peninsula, even a fine mist of blood cells produced by a meteor striking a high-flying flock of bats.

--snip--


http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/2c21c0f98d07b010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

All I can say is :wow:, incredibly cool! Can't wait for the results of the further analysis, replication and review!

[beam me up scottie]

1. Alien chem trails.

I knew it!

[Tace]

2. That's Obviously "A Fine Mist Of Blood Cells Produced By A Meteor...

striking a high-flying flock of bats."

Yeah, that's the ticket.

[panader0]

3. This reminds me of that movie where everyone turned into pods

The aliens came to earth in rain drops. (play Twilight Zone music)

[salvorhardin]

4. Has anyone got a phone number for PETA?

You know, so they can liberate them from captivity?

[Ready4Change]

5. Some of the proposed reasons for this don't seem plausible.

They say nearly 50 tons if this material came down. 50 tons of bats blood?

There have been rains of terrestrial critters before, like frogs and such. I think they say they are the result of waterspouts sucking the critters up and into convective clouds, which then carry them over land and dump them. If that can happen with frogs I see no reason it can't happen with microbes. If so, they'll be identified.

But I also don't rule out an extraterrestrial origin for them. The material in our universe has gone through several phases where material which is now scattered through space was once dense and warm. Events like the expansion after the big bang and the formation of solar systems might have created pockets of chemical stews with the right characteristics for life to develop, even assuming what we think of as "right" is the ONLY right combination.

If something could come into being in space, it might be very exposed to radiation, which would make a mockery of what DNA does here on Earth. If these microbes DO come from space, and if they do reproduce in some fashion without DNA as we are used to seeing, that process would be something fantastic to study.

It would also be evidence of a stepping stone, of sorts, for the progression of life here on Earth. Cells with membrane walls could have been viable critters and provided the environment in which DNA could come into existance. At which time DNA allowed thr critters to evolve much more rapidly and effectively, thus outcompeting the previous, slower witted non-DNA breed.

Or, it could just be algae sucked up from a nearby marsh.

[Phoonzang]

6. If this was caused by one of the mundate explainations..

....put forth, why the hell is it taking so long to come up with a conclusion. Not that one of those aren't more likely than alien cells raining down on the planet but the :meteors striking a flock of bats" idea is just ridiculous. Shows the lengths some people will go to to avoid having to consider the existance of life beyond earth.

Anyway...I prefer the "giant space monster makes a wrong turn and burns up in the atmosphere" explaination. B-)

[eppur_se_muova]

7. I recall that red blood cells of frogs have no nuclei ...

so obviously, a meteor hit a swarm of flying frogs.

Seriously, though, these are plainly weapons of mass destruction. They're everywhere.

Guys...send samples to microbiologists...to chemists...not astronomers, OK?

[benburch]

10. Yours have none, either.

Red blood cells are unique that way. They calve off of stem cells in the marrow, but the cells do not actually divide their nucleus.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Oh, right! *BLUSH* Red cells WITH nuclei are the oddballs. Now I can't

remember which creatures have red cells with nuclei ... camels? frogs? West Connecticut debutantes?

According to Wikipedia there's one order of salamanders whose red cells have nuclei, and the red cells of camels are oval in shape. I guess that's what I get for trying to remember photo captions from Time-Life books I read 35 years ago.

Although a google search suggests that most vertebrates other than mammals have nucleate red cells -- apparently mammals have smaller capillaries? So we're the oddballs? Maybe the Web's memory is as fuzzy as mine.

Too bad about the flying frogs, though.

[abester]

8. Interesting

This is very interesting. I read an article about this in SciAm some time ago. Last I heard some samples were send to different labs for closer inspection and to reveal what its made of.

IMO though, the author very quickly ruled out any conventional explanation and immediatly made the adhoc assumption of alien microbes. I find that very questionable, and personally I strongly doubt it. The very localized nature reeks of a n atomspheric meteorite impact, probably a stone or ice meteorite.

If they are microbes, they needed a lot of time, like life on earth, to develop. Presumably, there is then quite a lot of this stuff in other meteorites as well, which begs the question: why haven't they been reported earlier?

I we'll have to wait until the results are in what they are made of.

[Notti di Cabiria]

9. It's raining bat blood! Hallelujah, it's raining bat blood!

"...fine mist of blood cells produced by a meteor striking a high-flying flock of bats"

Oh my. That is comedy gold. Wouldn't a meteor striking some high-flying bats incinerate the poor little things? Do bats even fly that high???! Do red blood cells scatter in clouds? Whoever thought up that one deserves an award for Most Ridiculous, Therefore Hilarious Hypothesis Ever.