Mysterious red cells might be alien life

Hey everyone,

Hope I'm posting this in the right place, this is my first post. I attempted to reply once before but it was lost. Maybe I should read all the rules! Anyways, I came across this story and thought it'd be perfect for this place. Sounds amazing, I'm hoping there's a good follow up to this once more research has been done.

Here's the link:

edition.cnn.com...

Mark

What a fascinating article! I've heard about that mysterious "red rain" falling in India and how bewildering it was for all who witnessed it. I will definitely be on the look out for more updates on the actual long term implications based on on the research of those scientists who have been analyzing the structural componants of those red cells.

Fascinating....but CNN may be jumping the gun...

As the article states, just because it doesn't have DNA, doesn't mean it has to be alien. It may simply be a different form of life that spawned right here on Earth. It could have even been altered or jarred into evolution from a meteoric impact, etc. but it would be nearly impossible to prove that they existed in that state prior to being discovered here on Earth.

The lifeform is intriguing though, and could completely redefine our criteria for "life", and that is just as fascinating as aliens to me, as it could lead to finding actual aliens on other worlds...that share a similar construct.

Yes, it is very intriguing and the existence of these cells, it they are what they think they are, certainly supports the panspermia hypothesis. Here's the wikipedia definition for that term:
"Panspermia is the hypothesis that the seeds of life are ubiquitous in the Universe, that they may have delivered life to Earth, and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies; also the process of such delivery."
It's mind-boggling isn't it?

The first samples of Kerala’s red rain arrived at Cardiff University’s labs last month. Intensive investigation under high-powered microscopes confirmed the cell-like structures are biological and that they do contain DNA, the blue print of all life forms on Earth. What’s not yet known is whether it is terrestrial life or alien DNA, but investigators believe they will know soon.

www.bsn.org.uk...

They are comparing the DNA with all known earth genomes and if they find no similarities it will appear it is extra-terrestrial.