Re: Is it Raining Aliens? Popular Science Magazine
- From: Matt Giwer <jull43@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 04:47:16 GMT
Jason H. wrote:
Some of you may remember a post I made back in 2004 regarding the "Red
Rain of Kerala". An article in the June 2006 issue of Popular Science
titled - IS IT RAINING ALIENS? references a 2006 paper:
"The red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial
origin"
which can be found at
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601022
The PopSci article reports that one of the paper's authors, Godfrey
Louis, has sent some of his samples to astronomer Chandra Wickramsinghe
(who co-authored a contemporary Panspermia theory) and his colleagues
at Cardiff University in Wales who are attempting to duplicate the
experiments, the findings of which may be published later this year.
Here is the abstract from the aforementioned paper:
"Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (Mahatma Gandhi University,
Kottayam, India)
Comments: 18 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in
Astrophysics and Space Science
A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, India starting from 25th July
2001, in which the rainwater appeared coloured in various localized
places that are spread over a few hundred kilometers 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."
The following is the link to the 2003 paper (which I posted here in
2004)
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312639
And here is the associated abstact:
"Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of Kerala
Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar
Comments: 20 pages, 5 figures, paper to be submitted to Nature
Red coloured rain occurred in many places of Kerala in India during
July to September 2001 due to the mixing of huge quantity of
microscopic red cells in the rainwater. Considering its correlation
with a meteor airbust event, this phenomenon raised an extraordinary
question whether the cells are extraterrestrial. Here we show how the
observed features of the red rain phenomenon can be explained by
considering the fragmentation and atmospheric disintegration of a
fragile cometary body that presumably contains a dense collection of
red cells. Slow settling of cells in the stratosphere explains the
continuation of the phenomenon for two months. The red cells under
study appear to be the resting spores of an extremophilic
microorganism. Possible presence of these cells in the interstellar
clouds is speculated from its similarity in UV absorption with the
217.5 nm UV extinction feature of interstellar clouds."
Considering their heat resistant characteristics, perhaps they are
extremophiles from inside the Earth that were injected into the
atmosphere in a volcanic steam plume?
There are several problems with this not the least of which is imacting the atmosphere at 25,000 mph minimum and surviving. I am not saying an earthly source is easy to explain but Charles Fort was not inventing what he collected from the news. And granted we cannot rule out sensationalist fillers for newspapers. Even though we cannot satisfactorily explain them organic falls from the sky are well known.
Another major problem is the duration of the rain. Last I heard around the latitude of Kerala the earth is rotating at about 1000 mph. That implies one huge hit on the order of Tunguska to deliver all this red stuff. That size is implied because the only way to fail to destroy it all at the 25,000 mph impact velocity is to have it such a small fraction of the total ice mass that a good fraction of it can survive the fireball.
Yes it has to be a water comet as there is no conceivable method for liquid organics in any density being included in a rock or iron expulsion from Mars for example.
But if an ice comet we have the problem of this complex chemistry occuring at Oort cloud temperatures. The rate of chemical reaction is exponentially related to temperature -- worse than that actually. If it took as little as 100,000 years for life to appear on earth the Oort cloud has not had enough time because of its temperature. And it is even worse if it came from interstellar space. The universe is barely four times older than the Oort cloud but 3 degrees K lower. Not enough time from bangtime. Now if someone finds a billion year old dead brown dwarf in orbit beyond Pluto all bets are off.
Biologists can best address other problems such as these are organic and have not deteriorated in all these years? Any evidence of organic at all? Microbes fell in the rain with them and have not eaten them.
I am not against the idea but I do not see this as a credible example of it. I wish them the best but I would have expected something substantive by now instead of still speculating.
--
No country in the world has recognized Israel's right to exist. Why must the
Palestinians be the first?
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3647
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
Zionism http://www.giwersworld.org/disinfo/disinfo.phtml a4
.
- References:
- Is it Raining Aliens? Popular Science Magazine
- From: Jason H.
- Is it Raining Aliens? Popular Science Magazine
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