Category: Physics

A series of highly unusual reports of red rain falling in parts of India starting in 2001 and lasting roughly two months prompted Clifford Carnicom to try to contact university members at the Mahatma Ghandi University in that country. Both attempts at contacting the University failed as undeliverable. This paper contains a link to an article describing the red particles contained in the red rain itself, as well as work done by Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar, who wrote papers about this topic of red rain. Various attempts at explaining how these particles got into the rain are discussed, with some scientists believing a previous meteor shower could have deposited the particles in the atmosphere, which is called panspermia. As far as the particles themselves, they have the following intriguing, yet alarming, characteristics ascribed to them: These particles have much similarity with biological (red blood) cells though they are devoid of DNA. The particles can grow if placed in extreme heat and reproduce, even though the particles seem to lack a nucleus and DNA for reproduction. The particles look like one-celled organisms and are about 4 to 10 thousandths of a millimeter wide, somewhat larger than typical bacteria. Even after storage in the original rainwater at room temperature without any preservative for about four years, no decay or discoloration of the particles could be found.