It might be life Jim, but not as we know it!

[JaXanim]

This article in today's Yorkshire Post is very interesting and has raised the old theory (started by Fred Hoyle) that life on Earth was 'seeded' from space.

Apparently, a red rain falling over a wide area of india in 2001 was found to contain 'cellular' particles. These are actually able to 'replicate', according to an Indian researcher, after five years studying the substance. The odd thing is there's no evidence of DNA in the 'cells'. Of course, DNA is believed to be the prerequisite of life as we know it.

A sample of the space dust is now being studied in Sheffield (UK) University.

JaX

[blobrana]

Hum,
i have a link to the author’s paper.

The red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial origin
Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India)

"A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, India starting from 25th July 2001, in which the rainwater appeared coloured in various localised places that are spread over a few hundred kilometres in Kerala. Maximum cases were reported during the first 10 days and isolated cases were found to occur for about 2 months. The striking red colouration of the rainwater was found to be due to the suspension of microscopic red particles having the appearance of biological cells.
These particles have no similarity with usual desert dust. An estimated minimum quantity of 50,000 kg of red particles has fallen from the sky through red rain. An analysis of this strange phenomenon further shows that the conventional atmospheric transport processes like dust storms etc. cannot explain this phenomenon. The electron microscopic study of the red particles shows fine cell structure indicating their biological cell like nature. EDAX analysis shows that the major elements present in these cell like particles are carbon and oxygen.
Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells. In the context of a suspected link between a meteor airburst event and the red rain, the possibility for the extraterrestrial origin of these particles from cometary fragments is discussed."

Read more (PDF)

Though i have read elsewhere that the red dust was actually from Red China, and studies of the wind patterns during that period tie in with that as a source.

[Karlos]

JaXanim wrote:
This article in today's Yorkshire Post is very interesting and has raised the old theory (started by Fred Hoyle) that life on Earth was 'seeded' from space.

Apparently, a red rain falling over a wide area of india in 2001 was found to contain 'cellular' particles. These are actually able to 'replicate', according to an Indian researcher, after five years studying the substance. The odd thing is there's no evidence of DNA in the 'cells'. Of course, DNA is believed to be the prerequisite of life as we know it.

A sample of the space dust is now being studied in Sheffield (UK) University.

JaX

Technically RNA is more fundamental as it can play the role of data storage and also enzymatic type function (there are self modifying RNA sequences in nature).

Prior to that there are lots of prebiotic possibilities for the first molecular self replicating systems, not that it's known what, if any, played a role in the development of life.

Pansperma is possibly as as good a theory as any, except you run into the question of where did the first biological life come from elsewhere in the universe?

[JLF65]

The guy's a complete whacko. From the article:

They believe the dust must have been contained in a comet or meteor which hit the atmosphere and exploded. There were reports of a big bang in the region at about the right time.

Now THERE'S some real astronomical evidence - a "big bang" noise reported by a few people. Certainly it couldn't POSSIBLY have been a car backfiring or a gunshot or someone blasting stumps in the field. It HAD to be a meteor carrying alien life.  :roll:   :crazy:

Just as paranoid, but more likely: the government was testing a new biological agent spread by a rocket detonated over the town.

[JaXanim]

@blobrana

Thanks for the link, it's a very interesting read. The localised distribution of the red rain 'cloud' seems to mitigate against China (or anywhere else on Earth) as the source and a scenario discussed in the paper.

It's a pity the original story seems to have attracted very little attention in the West. Compare this case with the 'fossil microbe' reported by NASA(?) after one of their Mars adventures. The world was in on this the day after the event. But superficially, these Indian 'cells' seem to me as convincing as the 'fossil' yet it's taken five years for the red rain story to surface (publically)over here.

Considering the fundamental importance of any discovery of this nature, I'd have expected NASA to have been all over the region and committing a lot of their vastly superior resources to it.

Could it be that anything not discovered by NASA isn't worth looking at?

Cheers,

JaX

[EDIT: Spelling errors]

[PMC]

JaXanim wrote:

Considering the fundamental importance of any discovery of this nature, I'd have expected NASA to have been all over the region and committing a lot of their vastly superior resources to it.

Imagine what would have happened if NASA had published the report "Possible Origins Of Life Rain Down in India".  They'd be castigated for not taking sufficient time to research the phenomenon.  

Thing is that unexplained stuff happens every day.  There's much that occurs that we don't understand and scientists are understandably reluctant to make premature announcements - especially in light of the controversy surrounding the Martian meteorite press conference in 1996.

Could it be that microbal life can be seeded from space?  Well, Alan Bean brought back components from Surveyor 3 during the Apollo 12 moonwalk that still harboured live bacteria, which had contaminated the unmanned lander prior to it's 1966 launch.  Bean's recovery of parts from the Surveyor craft have proved that bacteria can survive for at least three years in a dry, frozen vacuum and be revived once returned to Earth.

In science, the truth it seems is almost always beyond the wildest of theories.

[blobrana]

Hum,
Yeah, things fall out of the sky all the time...
a while ago i myself heard a meteorite sonic boom - from a meteorite that fell 20 km away into the North sea.

And recently it seems were are reports of spectacular "balls of fire" falling near Stirling Castle,  which  have sparked a hunt for the crash sites of two meteors .
If discovered, they would be the first meteorites confirmed to have landed in Scotland  in almost 100 years. The incidents, reported by several witnesses, were on the evenings of Friday, February 17 and the following Monday.

 "Although meteorite falls are rare everywhere, Scotland seems to have escaped remarkably lightly. There have only been four meteorites recovered from Scotland, compared with more than 18 from England and Wales. Statistically, we are overdue another one. There must undoubtedly be more people who saw these meteorites - people who just happened to be out walking the dog or looking out their window - and we need them to come forward. It can be difficult to judge exactly where a meteorite may have landed but it is exciting." - John Faithfull, curator of mineralogy and petrology at Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum.

There is a lot of moneys worth lying around there somewhere, so it's maybe worth a look in your backyard (ie...Vincent in Dundee - but if it moves ...run!)

BTW, here is a link to the red rain guys website
http://education.vsnl.com/godfrey/

[JaXanim]

@blobrana
@PMC

Neither of which answers my question.

JaX

[blobrana]

Hum,
What was the question?

BTW, possibly the red rain is from swarms of insects caught up in a storm.

[JaXanim]

@blobrana

My question was about NASA's interest (or lack of) in anything not 'discovered' by them. They were pretty voluble about the Mars 'fossil' when the evidence (other than visual) was virtually non-existant.

I thought insects had DNA/RNA?

Whichever way you try to rationalise it, this phenomenon is difficult to explain. NASA could have cleared it up years ago had they taken any interest.

JaX

[odin]

It's the red weed.... (UUUUUuuuuuuuuuuu-laaaaaaaaaaaaaAAaa).

[JaXanim]

Just to stir this a little more....

PMC wrote:

Imagine what would have happened if NASA had published the report "Possible Origins Of Life Rain Down in India".  They'd be castigated for not taking sufficient time to research the phenomenon.

I can't imagine NASA publishing such a report without taking sufficient time to research it. That's my point, they haven't
spent any time on it. It was five years ago after all.

Thing is that unexplained stuff happens every day.

Blimey, I must walk around with my eyes shut!. How about lots of good examples to support your argument?

There's much that occurs that we don't understand .....

Not true, not on Earth anyway. Again, I'd want to see many examples to support this argument.

....and scientists are understandably reluctant to make premature announcements - especially in light of the controversy surrounding the Martian meteorite press conference in 1996.

NASA, once bitten twice shy, eh?

Could it be that microbal life can be seeded from space?  Well, Alan Bean brought back components from Surveyor 3 during the Apollo 12 moonwalk that still harboured live bacteria, which had contaminated the unmanned lander prior to it's 1966 launch.  Bean's recovery of parts from the Surveyor craft have proved that bacteria can survive for at least three years in a dry, frozen vacuum and be revived once returned to Earth.

Which tends to give the panspermia idea some support.

In science, the truth it seems is almost always beyond the wildest of theories.

Not sure what that means. Like 'Truth is Stranger than Fiction'? Well this red rain stuff is very strange for sure.

And the story is still running. This article implies there's a growing willingness to look into it by people who aren't/can't be regarded as cranks.

Cheers,

JaX

[PMC]

JaXanim wrote:
Just to stir this a little more....

PMC wrote:
Thing is that unexplained stuff happens every day.

Blimey, I must walk around with my eyes shut!. How about lots of good examples to support your argument?

JaX

Well okay, here goes - here are two of the more controversial unexplained items - I'm guessing that's what you wanted, right? ;-)

http://www.roswellrods.com/pre.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/mystery/aurora.htm

I'm not just referring to red rain in India or mysterious artefacts on film.  Just becasue something hasn't yet been explained doesn't mean it's sinister.  

There's things like this - quite beautiful and unusual:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4785482.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4781730.stm

We don't fully understand the weather patterns of this planet, nor have we seen the full extent of it's ecology.  We don't understand how a huge storm can broil in Jupiter for hundreds of years, or what is flying in our skies.

[JaXanim]

@PMC

I think you misunderstand my comment. I totally agree that unexplained things happen. But they don't happen 'every day'.

If they did, we'd all have seen UFOs of one kind or another. Personally, I've never seen anything remotely UFO-like and nor have most people.

The hairy crab and Jupiter's new red spot are fantastic surprises, but they're not really inexplicaple are they? The oceans will provide a lot more surprises yet, but they will not be inexplicable. I also limited my observations to things that happen here on Earth. There's very little happening here that's inexplicable after a little scientific investigation.

The red stuff is a different thing altogether and in quite a different league from UFO sightings and hairy crabs. The fact that scientists have this stuff in their hands and after five years' study still don't know what it is, is quite extraordinary.

My point was that considering the undoubted facts and reported observations associated with the phenomenon, the fact that the  international journal Astrophysics and Space Science has accepted Godfrey Louis' paper for publication, why hasn't NASA, or a similar agency taken any interest in it?

Cheers,

JaX