Autofluorescence characteristics of the red rain cells

Godfrey Louis; A. Santhosh Kumar

doi:10.1117/12.2024366

26 September 2013 Autofluorescence characteristics of the red rain cells

Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar

Proceedings Volume 8865, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XVI; 88650I (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2024366
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2013, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Red rain cells are the microscopic biological cells which appear mixed in rain water in large quantity imparting visibly red color to the rain water in a strange event called red rain phenomenon. Our study of this phenomenon which happened in Kerala, India in 2001 has shown that the origin of these cells is possibly extraterrestrial. These cells are not so far successfully identified as any organism known on earth. The cells have unusual property like ability to reproduce at extreme high temperature and the colorless daughter cells cultured from the red cells show unusual autofluorescence characteristics. In this paper we report the autofluorescence characteristics of the original red rain cells. High resolution fluorescence microscopy is employed to study the fluorescence images of the cells under UV-Visible excitation. The results are discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar "Autofluorescence characteristics of the red rain cells", Proc. SPIE 8865, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology XVI, 88650I (26 September 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2024366

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