The mysterious Red Rain of Kerala



The mysterious Red Rain of Kerala
The colored rain of Kerala first fell on 25 July 2001, in the districts of Kottayam and Idukki in the southern part of the state. Some reports suggested that other colors of rain had been seen also.
People reported many more occurrences of the red rain over the following ten days, and then with diminishing frequency until late September.
According to locals, a loud thunderclap and flash of light, followed by groves of trees shedding shriveled grey "burnt" leaves, preceded the first colored rain. Reports had been given of shriveled leaves and the disappearance and sudden formation of wells around the same time in the area.
Red particles in suspension in the rain water caused the coloration of the rain, and the red rain appeared at times as strongly colored as blood.
It typically fell over small areas, no more than a few square kilometres in size, sometimes so localized that normal rain could be falling just a few metres away from the red rain.
Red rainfalls typically lasted less than twenty minutes.
Godfrey Louis, a physicist based in Kerala, analysed drops of the rain expecting the strange color would be a result of dust particles. But that didn't turn out to be the case.
"Dust particles do not have this irregular shape," Louis said in the program. "They are not transparent like this."
Louis noticed something else when he analysed the crimson-colored water droplets under the microscope. In his opinion, the particles appeared to be alive, with some superficial similarities to blood cells -- although closer inspection revealed they were not blood cells.
At first, the official report from the Center for Earth Science Studies attributed the red rain to an exploding meteor that fell to Earth in the area a week before the first red rainstorm.
After working with the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, the official explanation was changed to spores, according to the Indian Express.
Researchers at Stintec, a lab in Sri Lanka, found something more shocking. Even though the so-called "spore cells" were replicating, not one trace of DNA could be found.
Louis believes that the spores were on the meteor that exploded over Kerala prior to the rainstorm.
He said research showed that the supposed space cells managed to continue replicating even under temperatures exceeding 572 degrees Fahrenheit.
"It was growing at temperatures that would kill other lifeforms," Louis said on the show.
British-based astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe believes that the "alien rain" theory is not only plausible, but likely, especially since 100 tons of space rock hits Earth daily.
The official story is that the red colouration was caused by terrestrial algae, but this does not explain the research and findings detailed above.
The last two pictures show the red rain under a microscope and bottled for laboratory tests
So far, it seems to remain a contested and intriguing mystery....

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