[meteorite-list] Re: Red Rain From Comets?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Mar 7 13:04:54 2006
Message-ID: <200603071803.k27I38P02899_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Checking through my old emails, I came across this article, which
incidently I had posted to this forum back in 2001.

Ron Baalke

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Meteor rain theory dashed
Ananova
August 5, 2001

Scientists say "rainbow rain" that lashed parts of India may have been
caused by a fungus, not meteor dust as first thought.

Red, yellow, green and black rain fell in the state of Kerala last week.

It had been thought the colours were down to a burning meteor throwing more
than 2,000 pounds of fine dust into the atmosphere. But analysis of rain
water samples now suggests fungal spores could be to blame.

Indian Express reports a detailed chemical and biological analysis was
carried out by scientists of the Centre for Earth Science Studies in
Trivandrum.

''The red colour in the rain water appears to be mainly due to these
spores," said CESS Director C S Baba.

The biological study has revealed a red-coloured cell structure tentatively
identified as spores of a type of fungus. The exact species has still to be
found.

The scientists though are clueless about what produced the huge quantity of
spores, and how distribution was localised.
Received on Tue 07 Mar 2006 01:03:07 PM PST