"bloody" rain in India. The most terrible phenomena in the world Scarlet rain looks like blood

Over many centuries of human existence, many cases of unusual precipitation have been recorded. And this is not only bloody rain, but also frogs, excrement, fish, salt, coins and banknotes falling on the ground. If in most cases the explanation is a large tornado, then the mystery of the bloody rains could not be solved for many years.

The very first mention of rain dates back to the 8th century BC. The ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch from Chaeronea was the first to try to interpret the phenomenon. He suggested that the water was colored due to the evaporated blood of killed soldiers after battles with Germany.

Eyewitness accounts have been recorded claiming that not only drops of blood fell from the sky, but also pieces of meat. The fact that there were neither clouds nor wind in the sky added to the fear of the people. It was mystical. The liquid taken for a primitive analysis, according to the specialist, turned out to be blood. But it would be wrong to believe the results of this examination, since the subsequent ones spoke about something completely different.

According to weather forecasters, one day bird's blood fell from the sky. Presumably, a flock of birds was caught in such a strong wind whirlwind that it was torn into tiny pieces, hence the precipitation. But no one could explain why feathers, beaks and all other components did not fall to the ground along with this.

The last recorded rain occurred in 2001. This summer in India was periodically accompanied by unusual precipitation for 2 months. Local residents observed both red and yellow, black, green drops. During these years, scientists already had the opportunity to conduct a complete analysis of precipitation. It was initially assumed that the color of the shower was the result of a meteorite explosion, but this version was refuted after the results of the examination were made public. The culprit was spores of local algae caught in the rain. It was also revealed that there were no pollution, gases, or volcanic dust in the raindrops.

Due to the fact that it rained for a long time, algae grew with high speed and in large quantities. This contributed to the constant release of red spores into the atmosphere, and accordingly the coloring of precipitation throughout both months.

In Russia, bloody rain fell in 1891. IN Yaroslavl region, in Rybinsk. A pinkish cloud spread over the port, thunder struck, and the city residents were horrified by what they saw. The sky turned red from the water, every object was painted this color. One of the eyewitnesses guessed to take a sample from the river, which also became colored. But as soon as the container touched the water, the liquid acquired white. And then it was no longer suitable for research.
In October 2012, the weather service warned residents and visitors to Sweden that precipitation, popularly called “blood rain,” was possible. Dust particles from the sands of the Sahara fell into a thunderstorm front approaching the kingdom. Meteorologists hastened to reassure impressionable people that this phenomenon does not carry anything negative. It is not harmful to skin, cars or animals. The only trouble awaiting eyewitnesses of the phenomenon are bloody streaks on objects caught in the path of the downpour. The experts' forecast did not come true.

In 2012, at the resort of Sri Lanka, vacationers witnessed an unusual phenomenon.
It rained pinkish in the morning for two days. Drying puddles left reddish marks on the ground. The researchers were tasked with finding out the cause of the event. The answer could not be found in previous studies. The dust particles would not travel the distance from the Sahara to the island. The situation in India was also not suitable - algae does not grow in the surrounding area, releasing microorganisms into the atmosphere.

Even in our advanced age, with 3D films and incredible special effects, this phenomenon makes an indelible impression. What were the emotions of people who observed the phenomenon for the first time?!

Strange red precipitation fell in India in 2001 total mass about 50 tons. In April of this year, physicist Godfrey Louis of Mahatma Gandhi University suggested that they are of extraterrestrial origin, Popular Science reports.

The scientist discovered that these strange red formations, similar to cells 10 microns long, lack DNA. They were also able to reproduce at temperatures of 315°C, although the known temperature limit for life in water is 120°C. The researcher suggested that these particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria that have adapted to harsh conditions outer space. According to him, they came to our planet with fragments of a small meteorite or comet that disintegrated in the atmosphere, and then mixed with rain clouds.

Until now, there have been many speculations about the origin of the “bloody rains”. Some scientists believed that microscopic seaweed was to blame, others believed that the red particles were fungal spores, and there were also suggestions that a meteorite fragment crashed into a high-flying flock bats, whose blood these formations are.

Louis and his colleagues abandoned these theories, since both the spores and the algae would have DNA present, and the blood cells would immediately die if they came into contact with air or water. In addition, blood cells are not capable of self-reproduction. Scientists say that they have already managed to see red formations in the section. According to them, inside the large cell there is another, small one.

An Indian team of scientists is going to soon test red cells for the presence of special carbon isotopes. If the results are positive, it will be serious proof of Louis's ideas.

It must have been an eerie sight when, instead of the usual rain, an ominous stream poured from the sky - red as blood. Such bloody rains have happened hundreds of times in history, both in hoary antiquity and in times closer to us.

The ancient Greek historian and writer Plutarch talked about the bloody rains that fell after big battles with the Germanic tribes. He was sure that bloody fumes from the battlefield permeated the air and turned ordinary drops of water blood red.

From another historical chronicle you can find out that in 582 bloody rain fell in Paris. For many people, the blood stained their dresses so much, an eyewitness wrote, that they threw them off in disgust.

And here is another red rain that fell in 1571 in Holland. It rained almost the whole night and was so heavy that it flooded the area for ten kilometers, all the houses, trees, and fences turned red. Residents of those places collected rain blood in buckets and explained the unusual phenomenon by the fact that it rose to the clouds of vapor from the blood of killed bulls.

The French Academy of Sciences also drew attention to the bloody rains. In her scientific “Memoirs” it is written: “On March 17, 1669, a mysterious heavy viscous liquid fell on the city of Chatilien (on the Seine River), similar to blood, but with a sharp unpleasant smell. Large drops of it hung on the roofs, walls and windows of houses. Academicians racked their brains for a long time trying to explain what happened and finally decided that the liquid formed in the rotten waters of some swamp and was carried into the sky by a whirlwind.”

In 1689 it rained blood in Venice, in 1744 in Genoa, just during the war. The red rain caused real panic among the Genoese. On this occasion, one of the learned contemporaries wrote: “What the common people call bloody rain is nothing more than vapors colored with cinnabar or red chalk. But when it falls from the sky real blood, which cannot be denied, then this, of course, is a miracle created by the will of God.”

In the early spring of 1813, a bloody rain suddenly fell over the Kingdom of Naples. The scientist of that time, Sementini, described this event in some detail, and we can now imagine how it all happened: “A strong wind had been blowing from the east for two days,” Sementini wrote, “when local residents saw a thick cloud approaching from the sea. At two o'clock in the afternoon the wind suddenly died down, but the cloud had already covered the surrounding mountains and began to obscure the sun. Its color, at first pale pink, became fiery red. Soon the city was plunged into such darkness that lamps had to be lit in the houses. The people, frightened by the darkness and the color of the cloud, rushed into cathedral pray. The darkness intensified, and the sky in its color resembled red-hot iron. Thunder rumbled. The menacing noise of the sea, although six miles away from the city, further increased the fear of the inhabitants. And suddenly streams of red liquid poured from the sky, which some took for blood, and others for molten metal. Fortunately, by evening the air cleared, the bloody rain stopped, and the people calmed down.”

It happened that not only bloody rains fell, but also bloody snow, as, for example, in France in the middle of the last century. This strange scarlet snow covered the ground with a layer of several centimeters.

The people saw the bloody rains as a sign and reproach higher powers. Scientists said that water becomes like blood due to mixing with red dust particles of mineral and organic origin. Strong winds can carry these dust particles thousands of kilometers and raise them to great heights, to rain clouds.

It was noted that bloody rains most often occurred in spring and autumn. In the last century, about thirty of them were registered. They fell out, of course, in our century. But no one was afraid of them anymore.

Gennady CHERNENKO
Magazine "UFO" No. 27/2000.

This story seems too yellow to be true. But she is real. Another matter is how to interpret the available data. Isn’t it strange that even several years after the event, and after everything seems to have been sorted out, there are still scientists who claim: “Alien life has been discovered!”

Then we managed to collect several water samples from these strange sediments. Godfrey isolated from these samples strange microscopic particles of red color, with a diameter of 4-10 microns (slightly larger than bacteria), covered with an unusual thick shell. The samples, by the way, were collected in open areas, so that the particles could not be washed away by rainwater from tree leaves or roofs.

A container with collected bloody rain from 2001 in the state of Kerala (photo from en.wikipedia.org).

As it turned out, these particles multiplied in water, and even in water heated (under pressure) to 315 degrees Celsius, as Popular Science writes in a recent article on this topic.

Also, experiments showed the Indian physicist that these particles may be devoid of DNA (the first DNA test was failed), and the main elements of the red particles are carbon and oxygen. Plus, iron, sodium, silicon, aluminum, chlorine, hydrogen, nitrogen and other elements were found there.

Louis believes that these are alien microorganisms that survived space travel in the nucleus of a small comet (meteorite) that broke up (disintegrated) somewhere high above India in 2001.

In addition, there is one more piece of evidence: residents of one of the districts of Kerala - Kottayam - clearly heard a loud meteor explosion on July 25, 2001 and saw a flash in the sky, after which the “red” rains began. It was in this area that they were most intense.

If Louis's theory is correct, it will be the first extraterrestrial microorganism discovered directly in a test tube.

The closest discovery of this kind is the discovery of potential traces of microorganisms in one of the Martian meteorites. Let us add that this is not the first discovery of potential remains of microbes or spores in a Martian meteorite (and several are known), but the first where traces (carbon structures) are extremely similar to traces of life.

Let us return, however, to the “bloody” rain. Stories about unusual rains, including red ones, go back many centuries. Nowadays, such legends have been explained by microscopic algae entering the atmosphere from the ocean. And in this story, back in 2001, this simple version was also put forward.

Vial with a sample of rain (photo from popsci.com).

Other proposed theories involved fungal spores, red dust brought from Arabian Peninsula, and even the completely ridiculous “fog of blood cells produced by a meteor striking a cluster of bats.”

Louis notes that algae and spores would have DNA, but here with its presence the result is still unclear (even in 2006). Blood cells cannot reproduce themselves, and they will not survive in such conditions - they are too thin shell. In addition, blood cells would not have produced such a volume of red material that then fell over the Indian state.

Even opponents of the hypothesis of extraterrestrial microbes did not find dust in the samples. Just as they did not find, by the way, cometary substance.

And Louis recently donated some of his samples to Chandra Wickramasinghe from Cardiff University, an astrobiologist and one of the most famous proponents of the panspermia hypothesis - the introduction of life itself to Earth from space billions of years ago.

His experiments showed strange results. Preliminary DNA tests were positive. But so far the DNA itself has not been identified.

So, after all, these are terrestrial algae? Indeed, most of the scientists who have spoken over the past years about the famous red rain are inclined towards ordinary terrestrial spores or single-celled algae.

A number of institutes, in particular, Tropical botanical garden and a research institute (Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute), based, by the way, in the same state of Kerala, back in 2001, carried out an analysis of rain particles and issued a message saying that these are lichen-forming seaweeds of the genus Trentepohlia.

Rain particles from Kerala under an electron scanning microscope (photo from en.wikipedia.org).

However, the report did not suggest any mechanism for the formation of such powerful and strange sediments with spores of these algae. After all, then the red showers, having begun abruptly, gradually faded away, and nothing like that ever happened there again.

Moreover, these supporters of the version about seaweed released the result of an analysis of the composition of those same red particles, performed using several types of spectrometry.

Of the compositional oddities, scientists noted a decent aluminum content (not at all characteristic of living cells), as well as an abnormally low phosphorus content (0.08% of the dry weight of red particles), while in cells one would expect its 3% content.

Again, not everything is clear with the biological-terrestrial version. If some scientists confidently say that this is algae Trentepohlia, then molecular biologist Milton Wainwright from the University of Sheffield, in March 2006, “identified” the mysterious red particles as spores of the “rusty” fungus of the order Uredinales.

Is it really so difficult to identify these microorganisms, given such beautiful photographs under a microscope, that discrepancies arise?

In addition, electron micrographs of sections of some of these strange particles, made by Wickramasinghe and his colleagues, showed an interesting way of multiplying red particles: inside large “cells” (we will write in quotes for now) even more microscopic “daughter cells” were maturing.

The only “cell” from that same red rain. Magnification 20 thousand times (photo from en.wikipedia.org).

Louis and Wickramasinghe are planning new tests to identify different carbon isotopes in microparticles. If the distribution of isotopes is very different from what is usual for all terrestrial organisms, this will be a strong argument in favor of Louis’ theory.

We would be calm if one of the latest articles by Louis, as well as Santhosh Kumar, his colleague at the institute and co-author of the very hypothesis about alien microorganisms, where they describe the still ongoing research, was published in Astrophysics and Space Science on April 1 2006. So no - the 4th. And this is not the first scientific article on this topic. Far from the first.

How could the editors of a scientific publication miss such a “yellow” topic? Well, nevertheless, the authors of the scandalous work themselves urge not to draw hasty conclusions. Although mysteries remain.

Possible “aliens” with a magnification of about 1 thousand times (photo from education.vsnl.com).

Based on the amount of precipitation that fell in Kerala in those days, as well as the number of “cells” per liter of water and the weight of these red particles, the authors of the work calculated: “alien microorganisms” fell on Earth at that time in the amount of 50 tons.

And most of them (85%) fell to the ground in the first 10 days of red rains, which occurred, we recall, immediately after a high-altitude explosion over the state. Although in general, these colored precipitations, but weaker, and precisely in this area, periodically occurred in the following days - until the end of September 2001.

The study authors argue that known atmospheric transport processes cannot explain such a large mass of material and its distribution over the day. Although not everyone agrees with them. This is understandable.

Godfrey Louis does not at all consider his assumption “about aliens” to be the only correct one, but notes that there are questions that still need to be answered (photo from education.vsnl.com).

But could it still be that on that day a comet nucleus or a large portion of cometary material entered the planet’s atmosphere? Is it possible for a situation in which an asteroid or comet from another planetary system, after long wanderings through space, ends up on Earth?

More recently, scientists have calculated that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was capable of sending a huge portion of terrestrial microorganisms straight to Titan and Europa. Why not imagine the reverse process, with a cosmic rock brought into our system from interstellar distances?

In addition, there is a hypothesis of the famous scientist Freeman Dyson that life did not originate on any planet (even if not ours, but on the planet of an alien Sun), but on a tiny asteroid or comet nucleus - in cold, vacuum and strong radiation. And it is very possible, Dyson believes, that it originated on the surface of one of the small bodies Kuiper belt.

In this light, the panspermia hypothesis gains additional support. On a journey of rocky or icy debris from the outer limits solar system It’s easier to believe in his journey to Earth than in his similar journey from another star system.

The culprit of all this commotion, Mr. Louis, says that he would simply be happy to accept a more real, “earthly” version of the origin of these mysterious particles, but so far he cannot find one that is truly satisfactory.

Rains, watering the earth with bright red drops, plunged people into real horror in ancient times. “Bloody” rains still fall in our time, causing even non-believers unpleasant feeling something terrible and inexplicable. Scientists have already studied the mysterious sediments more than once, but they are still far from reaching an unambiguous conclusion.

THE WORST RAINS

In ancient times, “bloody” rains caused fear among people and were considered a bad omen, therefore they were usually recorded in chronicles or manuscripts of ancient philosophers and thinkers. Mentions of this unusual phenomenon there is (1st century BC), Pliny (1st century AD), Plutarch (1st century AD). The latter, for example, believed that such rains fell after big battles, when bloody vapors rose into the air and colored raindrops in red.

Mentions of bloody rains are also found in a number of medieval chronicles.

When “bloody” rain fell in Rome in 1870, Italian scientists took samples of it and examined them under a microscope. It turned out that in every raindrop there were countless spherical flagellates of bright red color. The pigment hematochrome (“heme” in Greek means “blood”) was present in their cytoplasm; it is not surprising that flagellates gave rainwater such a strange color.

How did flagellates get into the rain cloud? According to scientists, they were lifted into the skies by a tornado. It has long been known that strong tornadoes capable of lifting water from a lake, pond or river, and even from the sea, into the air, taking its inhabitants at the same time. That's why there are rains with frogs, fish and other living creatures.

Modern scientists believe that rainwater acquires a red color due to its mixing with red dust particles of mineral and organic origin. Tornadoes and even very strong winds can lift these dust particles to a considerable height and transport them thousands of kilometers. Although this may seem incredible, there are reports of rains made from real human blood, and only of the second group. Well, scientists are definitely not yet able to explain this.

ALIENS WERE HIDDEN IN THE RAINDROPS...

An interesting hypothesis regarding the “bloody” rain that fell in 2001 was proposed by physicist Godfrey Louis from Mahatma Gandhi University. In his opinion, the color of the rain was caused biological substance of extraterrestrial origin. In rainwater samples, the scientist discovered mysterious red formations 10 microns long, similar to cells in which there was no DNA.

It turned out that they were able to reproduce at a temperature of 315 ° C, although the temperature limit known for terrestrial life for existence in water is only 120 ° C. The scientist believes that these formations may be extraterrestrial bacteria that came to our planet with a meteorite or a fragment of a comet. The space wanderer disintegrated in the planet's atmosphere, and bacteria from it mixed with rain clouds, and then fell to the ground with precipitation.

It was a terrible sight when, instead of the usual rain, an ominous stream poured from the sky - red as blood. Such bloody rains have been in history hundreds of times - both in hoary antiquity and in times closer to us, writes the historian anomalous phenomena G. Chernenko.

The ancient Greek historian and writer Plutarch talked about the bloody rains that fell after large battles with the Germanic tribes. He was sure that the bloody fumes from the battlefield permeated the air and painted ordinary drops of water blood-red.

In 582 bloody rain fell in Paris. “Many people had their clothes so stained with blood,” wrote an eyewitness, “that they threw them off in disgust.”

In 1571 it poured red rain in Holland. It flowed almost the whole night and was so abundant that it flooded the area for ten kilometers. All houses, trees, fences turned red. Residents of those places collected rain blood in buckets and explained the unusual phenomenon by the fact that it rose to the clouds of vapor from the blood of killed bulls.

Bloody Rains recorded by the French Academy of Sciences. Her scientific “Memoirs” record: “On March 17, 1669, a mysterious heavy viscous liquid, similar to blood, but with a sharp, unpleasant odor, fell on the city of Chatilien (on the Seine River). Large drops of it hung on the roofs, walls and windows of houses. Academicians racked their brains for a long time trying to explain what happened and finally decided that the liquid was formed... in the rotten waters of some swamp and was carried into the sky by a whirlwind!”

In 1689 bloody rain went to Venice, in 1744 - in Genoa. The red rain caused real panic among the Genoese. On this occasion, one of the learned contemporaries wrote: “What the common people call bloody rain is nothing more than vapors colored with cinnabar or red chalk. But when real blood falls from the sky, which cannot be denied, then this, of course, is a miracle performed by the will of God.”

In the early spring of 1813, a bloody rain suddenly fell over the Kingdom of Naples. The scientist of that time, Sementini, described this event in some detail, and we can now imagine how everything happened. “A strong wind had been blowing from the east for two days,” Sementini wrote, “when local residents saw a thick cloud approaching from the sea. At two o'clock in the afternoon the wind suddenly died down, but the cloud had already covered the surrounding mountains and began to obscure the sun. Its color, at first pale pink, became fiery red. Soon the city was plunged into such darkness that lamps had to be lit in the houses. The people, frightened by the darkness and the color of the cloud, rushed to the cathedral to pray. The darkness intensified, and the color of the sky resembled red-hot iron. Thunder rumbled. The menacing noise of the sea, although six miles distant from the city, further increased the fear of the inhabitants. And suddenly streams of red liquid poured from the sky, which some took for blood, and others for molten metal. Fortunately, by evening the air cleared, the bloody rain stopped , and the people calmed down."

It happened that not only bloody rains fell, but also bloody snow, as, for example, in France in the middle of the last century. This strange scarlet snow covered the ground with a layer of several centimeters.

The people saw the bloody rains as a sign and reproach from higher powers. Scientists said that water becomes like blood due to mixing with red dust particles of mineral and organic origin. Strong winds can carry these dust particles thousands of kilometers and raise them to great heights, to rain clouds.

It was noticed that bloody rains most often occurred in spring and autumn. In the 19th century, about thirty of them were recorded. They also fell out in the 20th century, of course. But no one was afraid of them anymore.

Nikolai Nepomniachtchi: “100 great mysteries of nature”