Red rain in Sri Lanka

[Pathfinder]

Friday, 16 November 2012
|
dailynews

Red rain in Sri Lanka

Ridma Dissanayake

Rare showers of red rain fell for over 15 minutes in Sewanagala, Monaragala and Manampitiya,Polonnaruwa yesterday morning hours of yesterday and day before yesterday. According to Meteorology Department sources red rain fell heavily in these areas and the reason has not been found yet.

Red rain in Sewanagala and Manampitiya left red frost on the ground. This is the first time red rain was witnessed in Sri Lanka. The Health Ministry Secretary informed Medical Research Institute (MRI) Director Dr Anil Samaranayake to conduct a study to ascertain the reasons for red rain by taking water samples from Monaragala and Polonnaruwa.
...
http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/11/16/news11.asp
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Sri Lanka Red Rain is having a cosmic connection..

November 18, 2012 | Filed under: Articles | Posted by: The SINHALAYA News Agency, Colombo, Sri Lanka
(by Walter Jayawardhana)

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Astrobiological Center at the Buckingham University, England said the recent phenomenon of red rain in Sri Lanka is reportedly similar to the red rain in Kerala in 2011 and 2009 which definitely had some cosmic connection.
...
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe further said, ?The red colour is not due to dust by red pigmented microorganisms resembling algae but unlike any known algae on Earth. We have shown that the original proposal by the botanic authorities in India that these are due a known algal bloom blown up from trees has been investigated by us and disproved.?
...
Wickramasinghe also said, ?As far as the Kerala red rain is concerned, there is a mysterious microorganism that has defied identification so far. We have not been able to convincingly extract any DNA from them and Prof Louis has maintained that there is no DNA, but it can multiply at very high temperatures under high pressure conditions. I think there are all the signs of an alien bug! The Kerala red rain was preceded by a sonic boom that was heard, probably indicating that a fragment of a comet exploded in the atmosphere and unleashed the red cells that became incorporated in rain.

I suspect the same could be true of the Sri Lankan rain, but I would like to have samples to confirm this...

Full text:
http://sinhalaya.com/news/eng/2012/sri-lanka-red-rain-is-having-a-cosmic-connection/

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Cause for red rain in Sri Lanka identified as algae species
<IFRAME height=360 src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H3q8aiHpQtc" frameBorder=0 width=480 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>

Published on Nov 17, 2012 by adaderana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3q8aiHpQtc

 

[Emily]

Re: Red rain in Sri Lanka

Great find, Pathfinder! Here's some background from MIT Technology Review on the red rain event in Kerala they reference in the article about the recent Sri Lanka event:

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/420610/the-extraordinary-tale-of-red-rain-comets-and-extraterrestrials/

The Physics arXiv Blog
September 1, 2010
The Extraordinary Tale of Red Rain, Comets and Extraterrestrials

For years, claims have circulated that red rain which fell in India in 2001, contained cells unlike any found on Earth. Now new evidence that these cells can reproduce is about to set the debate alive..

ETA:
Here's another perspective on the Kerala red rain that finds that the material is most likely terrestrial in origin, yet raises interesting questions.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ac071901u

What made the rain red in India?
Isotopic analysis points to a terrestrial origin for the unusual organic particles
that colored the rain like blood.
[snip]
But what are they?
Nevertheless, some interesting questions
remain. Are they terrestrial spores? If so,
why did the red rain occur over the
state of Kerala in 2001 and not again
since? How did so many spores become
airborne simultaneously?
Louis is hesitant to accept Brenna’s
isotopic analysis as the final blow to his
extraterrestrial hypothesis. “It appears
that this red rain organism is showing
more preference for 14N than any other
organism,” he notes. “Also, I am eager
to know the content of P in the cells
because P is involved with DNA.” And
so far, he adds, “no evidence for DNA
has been found.” a
—Barry E. DiGregorio
ANALY T I C A L C H E M I ST RY / M AY 1 , 2 0 0 7