Mysterious red cells without DNA in India

reported by CNN - Friday, June 2, 2006 
 and PopSci.com

Courtesy Dr. Godfrey Louis
magnified 500 times

Nearly 50 tons of mysterious red particles rained from the sky in India in 2001

Based on a report by Jebediah Reed, Popular Science:

A cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis's laboratory in southern India may hold a link to extraterrestrial life. Mysterious blood-colored rain fell in the state of Kerala in India from July to September of 2001. It contained microbes so far unknown on out planet. Dr. Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures from the red rain, all roughly about 10 microns in size. Dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA but are able to reproduce, even in water superheated to nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit, way above the known upper limit for life in water, which is about 250 degrees Fahrenheit .

Many theories have been put forward, but they all fail, because life on earth that replicates has DNA in its cells while the little red cells don't have any but still reproduce plentifully. Little daughter cells have been observed budding inside the big cells. While the anomaly doesn't prove that the cells are extraterrestrial, it does take us one step closer in that direction. 

For more see: CNN - Friday, June 2, 2006  and PopSci.com

If the microbes came to earth via a comet, then comet 73P could be a candidate that crosses the earth's path in early 2001, except the earth would not have been nearby for a close encounter as it was in May 2006, however, it would cross the comet's path several months later so that the chances for encounter while they are remotely possible are quite slim. Most likely, the red cells may prove to be merely an abnormality that hadn't been encountered before. The materials that they are made of is quite normal for organic substances. On the other hand, the cells have not been found anywhere else of earth.

"Critical to Louis's theory is the length of time the red rain fell on Kerala. Two months is too long for it to have been wind-borne dust, he says. In addition, one analysis showed the particles were 50 per cent carbon, 45 per cent oxygen with traces of sodium and iron: consistent with biological material." see: Guardian Unlimited

Also see Home Page of Dr. Godfrey Louis