What's New in Red rain study

Amazing survival capacity of RED cells in the RED RAIN

This is the red cells which caused the coloration to the red rain of Kerala. The image was micro-photographed two days back using the sample collected on 2001 under 100 x magnification. The cells are amazingly intact and nothing happed to the cells for the LAST 21 YEARS when stored on rain water without any preservatives at room temperature. The sample has been kept at refrigerator last week and have a look under the microscope. surprisingly, nothing happened to the cells but a slight discoloration. No known microbe in the EARTH can survive in the rain water for a such long duration which strongly support our idea of Extraterrestrial origin.

We are on the way to publish more results on the Replication mechanism of red cells.

Below are the red rain cells imaged on 02-04-2016 on red rain sample collected on 2001 that rained on Kanjirappally of Kottayam District Kerala . The sample were kept at rain water at room temperature WITHOUT ANY PRESERVATIVES. The cells are still intact without any decay or discolouration. This is really very extraordinary,..... extraordinary capacity of red cells that are still alive and active in rain water for a long duration of about 15 YEARS !!!. No known microbes in earth can survive in rain water without any preservatives for more than 1 year in rain water except the marine origin organisms.

Microscopic examination after 20 years shows that the cells are very intact .. no discoloration .. no decay when kept in room temperature in the rain water without any preservatives

Still to come.......

DNA study and Genomic DNA Isolation of red rain cells A Santhosh Kumara, Jincy Thottathilb, E V Soniya b and Godfrey Louisc

Abstract: The red cells which cause the coloration to the red rain of Kerala, India in 2001, has gained much scientific interest because of its absence of DNA as genetic molecules in it. In this paper we report the DNA extraction, isolation and sequencing method to identify the DNA. The CTAB protocol is carried out for the isolation, and subsequently the presence of DNA was checked by Agarose Gel Electrophoresis. Negative results obtained may be due to the limitation of the extractable quantity of DNA in the cells or due to the limitation of the protocol. Hence, DNA extraction, purification and Genomic sequencing were carried out using two protocols namely; UltraClean™Tissue & Cells DNA Isolation Kit and NucleoSpin™ Tissue were used. The negative results obtained in the DNA detection in the present studies are discussed in view of the lack of phosphorous in the cells using the EDAX by HRTEM. Continuous auto fluorescence features of pigment removed red cell using DMSO, without DAPI dye indicates that the fluorescence resulted in earlier reports was not due to DNA.

Still to come.......

Temperature stability of the red pigment of red rain cells A Santhosh Kumara and Godfrey Louisb

a School of Pure & Applied Physics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarshini Hills P.O, Kottayam-686560, Kerala, India

b Astrobiology Division, Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Cochin University P.O, Cochin-682022, Kerala, India

Abstract:

Recent evidences of the features of the red cells which caused the coloration to the red rain of Kerala are very interesting. UV-Vis-NIR absorption studies were conducted in the pigment, of the red cells, extracted using DMSO. Absorption spectra of extracted pigment showed 4 peaks in the visible region and several unexplainable fine structures in the NIR region. The temperature stability of the extracted red pigment extracted using DMSO was studied by recording the absorption in the visible region after incubating the pigment at different temperatures which shows that it was very stable up to 190oC. The present results were compared with the temperature stability of known natural pigment, carotenoid.

Still to come.......

Unusual autofluorescence of the red rain cells and the possible reason for the extended red emission in the interstellar medium

A Santhosh Kumar and Godfrey Louis School of Pure & Applied Physics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India Astrobiology Division, Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Cochin, Kerala, India

Abstract

The carrier of the dust-associated photoluminescence process causing ERE in many dusty interstellar environments remains unidentified. Several competing models are so far had been proposed and many of them are more or less able to match the observed broad ERE band but still remains unrevealed. Here in this paper we showed that the emission spectra of red cells, which caused the red colour to the red-rain of Kerala, have unusual autofluorescence. The emission bands in the visible region is changing with the excitation wavelength which is unusual and are matching with the spectrum of the cultured red rain cells. Additionally the red rain cells have a broad emission peak ranging from 520- 720nm which can be correlated with the possible reason for the ERE in the ISM and other galaxies, if they are good candidate in the ISM. ( to be submitted in Astrophysical journal.)

ANOTHER case of Rain in Vallikkunnu and uthinkal Panchayat Malappuram District, Kerala on 23rd Aug 2014

Also people witnessed Red Rain at Aluva Ernakulam district on 22 August 2014

We have analyzed the sample collected from Aluva. The same red coloured microbes are seen in the water.

Still to come.....

Replication of Red rain microorganism at extreme temperature and pressure... wait...

We gave the samples to Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe for Collaborative study...

University of south Wales published their findings on Red cells (An Independent Study using the sample from Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe) in Current Microbiology

Red Rain Cells of Kerala as a Possible Carrier of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands and the UV Extinction Bump

A. Santhosh Kumar, N. Chandra Wickramasinghe and Godfrey Louis

Advances in Astrophysics, Vol. 4, No. 2, May 2019 Full paper

Abstract Despite various proposals, no conclusive identification exists for the carriers of diffuse interstellar absorption bands DIBs and the UV extinction bump at 217.5 nm. The red rain cells of Kerala show strong absorption features near 216.5 nm and several weak absorption features in the wavelength region 400 to 900 nm which are superimposed on a broader blue-UV absorption peak. The red pigment extracted from the cells show strong peaks at 334 nm and 440 nm along with multitude of weak peaks. The measured absorption peaks are compared with that of DIBs and the UV bump. The higher peak widths for red cells in comparison with DIBs is attributed to the temperature difference between space environment and laboratory. Our results of the absorption spectra of red rain cells show significant correlation with the reported wavelengths of numerous DIBs and the UV extinction bump of the interstellar medium, thus showing that the red rain cells, which are of suspected extraterrestrial origin, is a plausible carrier of DIBs and the UV extinction bump.

BIOSIGNATURES OF KERALA RED RAIN CELLS: IMPLICATIONS IN UNDERSTANDING THEIR ORIGIN

Author(s): Rajkumar Gangappa, Malcolm Thomas and Stuart Hogg, European Planetary Science Congress 2013

Biosignatures of ‘Red Rain’ Microbes Revealed by UV-Visible and Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Rajkumar Gangappa, Kani M. Rauf , Anthony K. Campbell, Stuart I. Hogg and Malcolm C. Thomas

International Journal of Microbial Resource Technology Accepted 3 Nov 2014, Available online 1 December. 2014, Vol.2, No. 3 (2014)

Abstract

The unusual properties of the ‘red rain’ cells that fell in Kerala, India have given rise to speculation over their identity and provenance, but little biological analysis has been attempted. The present study investigates the properties of the red pigment that give these cells their characteristic color. Though more investigation is required for complete chemical and molecular characterisation of red pigment, we report the successful extraction of these compounds from red rain cells using DMSO, and their subsequent analysis by UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. Distinct spectral signatures suggest the presence of porphyrin complexes inconsistent with chloro

Morphological and Molecular Analysis Calls for a Reappraisal of the Red Rain Cells of Kerala. Current Microbiology . 09/2013; Full Text Rajkumar Gangappa, Mark J Burchell, Stuart I Hogg School of Applied Sciences, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, CF37 4AT, UK.

Few invited papers on Red rain cells are (Available in print as Proceedings of SPIE Volume 8865 Dates: Tuesday 27 August 2013)

Analysis of Sri Lankan red rain cells Author(s): Norimune Miyake, Takafumi Matsui, Chiba Institute of Technology (Japan); Chandra Wickramasinghe, The Univ. of Buckingham (United Kingdom); Anil Samaranayake, Keerthi Wickramarathne, Medical Research Institute Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka)

Microorganisms in the coloured rain of Sri Lanka

Author(s): Anil Samaranayake, Keerthi Wickramarathne, Medical Research Institute Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka); Chandra Wickramasinghe, The Univ. of Buckingham (United Kingdom

Red rain in Sri Lanka (Invited Paper)

Author(s): D. Dhanayake, S. Katugampala, S. Gunasekera, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (Sri Lanka); K. Wickrmarathne, Medical Research Institute Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka); A. D. De Silva, Genetech Research Institute (Sri Lanka); K. M. N. De Silva, V. Karunaratne, G. A. J. Amaratunga, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (Sri Lanka)

RED RAIN in Sri Lanka

Residents of Sevenagala and Indikolapelessa in the Moneragala District, area in the southeastern parts of the island, SRILANKA witnessed RED RAIN on November 14/15, 2012. Rare showers of red rain fell for over 15 minutes in Sewanagala, Monaragala and Manampitiya and Polonnaruwa

We have recieved the samples from SRI LANKA and analyzed. Samples of red rain from Sri Lanka have shown very similar red cells to those in the Kerala rain

new study shows that the Red cells found in Sri Lnka does not have Phosporous inside the cells and abundance of Uranium in the outer cells.

See the news LankaWeb – RED RAIN CELLS FROM SRI LANKA UNUSUALLY

Full paper : Discovery of Uranium in Outer Coat of Sri Lankan Red Rain Cells

Other studies related to the Red rain cells of SRI LANKA

Wickramasinghe, N.C. , J. Wallis, D.H. Wallis, M.K. Wallis, S. Al-Mufti, J.T. Wickramasinghe, Anil Samaranayake & K. Wickramarathne, “On the cometary origin of the Polonnaruwa meteorite“, Journal of Cosmology 21 (2013), 9572-9578

Wickramasinghe, N.C., J. Wallis, N. Miyake, Anthony Oldroyd, D.H. Wallis, Anil Samaranayake, K. Wickramarathne, Richard B. Hoover & M.K. Wallis, “Authenticity of the life-bearing Polonnaruwa meteorite“, Journal of Cosmology 21 (2013), 9772-9777

Wickramasinghe, N.C., K. Wickramarathne, Anil Samaranayake, D.H. Wallis, Richard B. Hoover, Carl H. Gibson & Jamie Wallis, “Living diatoms in the Polonnaruwa meteorite – possible link to red and yellow rain“, Journal of Cosmology 21 (2013), 9797-9804

Samaranayake, Anil, K. Wickramarathne & N.C. Wickramasinghe, “Microorganisms in the coloured rain of Sri Lanka, Journal of Cosmology 21 (2013), 9805-9810

Wickramasinghe, N.C, J. Wallis, D.H. Wallis, M.K. Wallis, N. Miyake, S.G. Coulson, Carl H. Gibson, J.T. Wickramasinghe, A. Samaranayake, K. Wickramarathne & Richard B. Hoover, “Incidence of low density meteoroids of the Polonnaruwa-type“, Journal of Cosmology 22 (2013), 1-8

Wallis, J., N. Miyake, R.B. Hoover, A. Oldroyd, D.H. Wallis, A. Samaranayake, K. Wickramarathne, M.K. Wallis, C.H. Gibson & N.C. Wickramasinghe, “The Polonnaruwa meteorite: Oxygen isotope, crystalline and biological composition“, Journal of Cosmology 22 (2013), 9-15

Paper has been published in SPIE Proceedings

Growth and replication of red rain cells at 121 oC and their red fluorescenceRajkumar Gangappa, Chandra Wickramasinghe, Milton Wainwright, A. Santhosh Kumar, Godfrey Louis

SPIE Conference 7819 Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XIII Aug. 3-5 2010 San Diego, Ed. Richard B. Hoover

- ABSTRACT: We have shown that the red cells found in the Red Rain (which fell on Kerala, India, in 2001) survive and grow after incubation for periods of up to two hours at 121 oC . Under these conditions daughter cells appear within the original mother cells and the number of cells in the samples increases with length of exposure to 121 oC. No such increase in cells occurs at room temperature, suggesting that the increase in daughter cells is brought about by exposure of the Red Rain cells to high temperatures. This is an independent confirmation of results reported earlier by two of the present authors, claiming that the cells can replicate under high pressure at temperatures up to 300 oC. The flourescence behaviour of the red cells is shown to be in remarkable correspondence with the extended red emission observed in the Red Rectangle planetary nebula and other galactic and extragalactic dust clouds, suggesting, though not proving, an extraterrestrial origin. Comment: 11 pages 10 figures SPIE Conference 7819 Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XIII Aug. 3-5 2010 San Diego, Ed. Richard B. Hoover
  - 08/2010;
  - SPIE Proceedings: SPIE Conference 7819 Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XIII Aug. 3-5 2010 San Diego, California, USA Download the full text from Arxiv.org http://arxiv4.library.cornell.edu/abs/1008.4960v1AIP Link : http://link.aip.org/link/?PSISDG/7819/78190N/1

Red rain cell research: A new perspective for interplanetary transfer of life

K. Rauf

(1), R. Gangappa (1), M. Thomas (1), C. Wickramasinghe (1) and A. Campbell (1)

(1) Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology and University of Glamorgan, UK (kumar.lifescience@gmail.com)

EPSC2009-707-1.pdf

Abstract :

Red rain fell over Kerala (India) in July 2001 shortly after reports of a meteor exploding in the atmosphere. On analysis, this red rain appeared to contain red particles having an appearance of biological cells, supporting the theory of panspermia by demonstrating that such cells might or must exist in space (1, 2). However, the report of a meteor or comet exploding is still in dispute. Red rain particles were analysed by using TEM, SEM, EDAX, UV and IR spectroscopy. Both TEM and SEM show that these red particles are possibly dormant microbial spores. UV-Visible spectrum of DMSO extract of red rain cells shows a maximum absorbance at 337nm indicating the presence of high UV- absorbing compounds in these red particles. IR spectra of red particles embedded in KBr show a number of infrared features centered at 3.4, 6.2, 7.2, 8.0, 8.6 and 13.3μm that have also been reported to be present in the emission spectra of unidentified infrared bands (UIBs) and protoplanetary nebulae (PPNe) (3). Features of UIBs are 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.3 μm and PPNe 3.3, 3.4, 6.2, 6.9, 7.2, 8.0, 8.6, 11.3, 12.2 and 13.3 μm. EDAX results indicate the presence of high amounts of C, O, N, Si and smaller amounts of Al, S, Ca, Na, Cl, P, Mg, K and Fe. However, the origin of these cells is not clear, but on the basis of current studies it can be hypothesized that the red rain particles could be the dormant spores of yet to be identified algal species or of completely unknown microorganisms.

An optical spectroscopic study correlating the yellow rain and cultured red rain microbes

Kumar, A. Santhosh; Louis, Godfrey

Instruments and Methods for Astrobiology and Planetary Missions XII. Edited by Hoover, Richard B.; Levin, Gilbert V.; Rozanov, Alexei Y.; Retherford, Kurt D.. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7441 (2009)., pp. 74410N-74410N-6 (2009).

A number of cases of yellow colored rain occurred in Kerala, India in July-August 2001 along with the red rain phenomenon. Recently during the end of July 2008 a few cases of yellow colored rain again occurred in Kerala and during the same time, unusual rain, termed as "blood rain" occurred in Bagado, Colombia. In this paper we show that the yellow rain and red rain can have a common origin. The yellow rainwater also exhibits the same unusual autofluorescence reported earlier for the cultured red rain microbes. Reasons for considering extraterrestrial origin for these colored rains are discussed.

DOI: 10.1117/12.826780

Unusual autofluorescence characteristic of cultured red-rain cells, Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar Proc. SPIE, , Vol. 7097, 709712 (2008); DOI:10.1117/12.794041

Abstract: The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala, India are now considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form. These cells can undergo rapid replication even at an extreme high temperature of 300 deg C. They can also be cultured in diverse unconventional chemical substrates. The molecular composition of these cells is yet to be identified. This paper reports the unusual autofluorescence characteristic of the cultured red rain cells. A spectrofluorimetric study has been performed to investigate this, which shows a systematic shift of the fluorescence emission peak wavelength as the excitation wavelength is increased. Conventional biomolecules are not known to have this property. Details of this investigation and the results are discussed1117/12.794041

Download the full text from here: http://link.aip.org/link/?PSISDG/7097/709712/1 DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.794041 or download from here : spiepaper709712.pdf

Red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial Origin, Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar, Astrophysics and Space Science Volume 302, Numbers 1-4 175 - 187( 2006) ABSTRACT: 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. Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures,

Full text download: Link to journal paper: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10509-005-9025-4

Preprint (full text) of the above paper is available for download from any of the following links or other mirror sites of ArXiv.org:

Primary US link: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601022

Indian mirror: http://in.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601022

UK mirror: http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601022

Growth characteristics of red rain microbes at temperatures below 100° C G Louis, AS Kumar Proceedings of the SPIE.Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XIII, San Diego, California, USA; 08/2010 Proc. SPIE 7819, 78190R (2010)

Abstract : The red rain microbes, which caused red rain phenomenon in Kerala, India, exhibit many characteristics much different from conventional microorganisms. Previous study indicates that these microbes are possibly of extraterrestrial origin. Their ability to multiply at extreme high temperature of 300 oC and the unusual autofluorescence of their biomolecules are some of their extraordinary properties. Their molecular composition is yet to be identified. In this paper we report the growth pattern of these novel microbes at temperatures below 100 oC as a minimal approach to show their biological nature. Automated turbidity measurement of the cell culture indicate standard microbial growth curve. Increase in the cell population is faster at higher temperatures. Details of this investigation and results are discussed. Download preprint: SPIE7819_24_2010.pdf or http://link.aip.org/link/?PSISDG/7819/78190R/1

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