Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of KeralaNew biology of red rain extremophiles prove cometary panspermia

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New biology of red rain extremophiles prove cometary panspermia

Astrophysics, abstractastro-ph/0312639http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312639Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India)Comments: 17 pages, 6 figures, see related paper astro-ph/0310120

This paper reports the extraordinary biology of the microorganisms from the mysterious red rain of Kerala, India. These chemosynthetic organisms grow optimally at an extreme high temperature of 300 degrees C in hydrothermal conditions and can metabolize inorganic and organic compounds including hydrocarbons. Stages found in their life cycle show reproduction by a special multiple fission process and the red cells found in the red rain are identified as the resting spores of these microbes. While these extreme hyperthermophiles contain proteins, our study shows the absence of DNA in these organisms, indicating a new primitive domain of life with alternate thermostable genetics. This new biology proves our earlier hypothesis that these microbes are of extraterrestrial origin and also supports our earlier argument that the mysterious red rain of Kerala is due to the cometary delivery of the red spores into the stratosphere above Kerala.

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References and citations for this submission:SLAC-SPIRES HEP (refers to, cited by, arXiv reformatted);NASA ADS;CiteBase (autonomous citation navigation and analysis)

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Astrophysics, abstractastro-ph/0310120Godfrey Louis [view email]Sun, 5 Oct 2003 19:31:15 GMT (228kb)

Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of Keralahttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310120Authors: Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh KumarComments: 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.

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References and citations for this submission:SLAC-SPIRES HEP (refers to, cited by, arXiv reformatted);NASA ADS;CiteBase (autonomous citation navigation and analysis)

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