What happened to India in 2001, why did it rain for two months in a row, and 50 tons of red particles were released out of thin air?

On July 25, 2001, many residents of the Kottayam and Iduki districts in the southern state of Kerala, India, saw a strong flash in the sky, followed by a loud bang, like a Ultra-level thunder is the same as lightning.

Although there are few thunderstorms in the local area in July, just after the people heard the loud noise, it didn't take long for it to start to rain like thunderstorms.

It's just that this time it was a red rain, like blood water, so it is often described as "blood rain".

Of course, this red rain is not a problem of light, but a solid red, and it is still very strong, and the clothes that are exposed to the outside will be dyed pink.

Unexpectedly, in the next two months, "blood rain" has occurred from time to time. As of the last record on September 23, 2001, a total of more than 100 records were recorded in various regions of Kerala. field.

The impact of this event was huge, attracting researchers from all over the world to explore the science behind "Blood Rain", which was adapted into the sci-fi movie "Red Rain" in 2013.

So, what is going on with this persistent colored rain?

In addition to being curious, the public may be more afraid of seeing this colored rain, because no one knows whether they can drink water safely, and during the first bloody rain, there were also reports of some The grapevine said that the "blood rain" hit the trees directly causing the leaves to wither, fall off as if they were scorched, and then disappear.

Therefore, Indian officials had to pay attention, and asked some scientific teams to conduct field inspections, as well as obtain samples of "blood rain" for analysis, etc.

Through on-the-spot investigations, it was found that the landing range of "blood rain" is often not very large. It usually only falls within an area of ​​no more than a few square kilometers, or a smaller area. Sometimes "blood rain" is next to normal rain. rain.

At the same time, the duration of "blood rain" is also very short, usually rarely more than 20 minutes, and then it will become normal rain. In addition, 85% of the blood rain occurred within 10 days after the first game, and the frequency after that was not high.

In the "blood rain" sample, the researchers found that the color of the blood rain is caused by the tiny particles in it. These particles are not soluble in water, so as long as they are left for a period of time, these particles will precipitate out and appear brown-red.

Interestingly, after the brown-red solid was isolated, more than 90% of it consisted of red round particles, while the rest were fragments.

In addition, there are about 9 million of these red particles per milliliter of "blood rain", and the researchers inferred that this two-month "blood rain" released at least 50 tons of these particles to land.

If you want to know the cause of this "blood rain", you must start with these red particles. As long as you understand the components of these particles, it is easy to find the cause.

What are the red particles?

In fact, in the world, rain with colors is relatively common, and there are relevant reports all over the world. In addition to red, there are also records of black, green, yellow, and even blue rain.

One of the most common causes of colored rain is meteorite or comet activity. In India's long-cycle "blood rain", a study reported that colored rain was collected from all over the world, of which 60 cases - about 36% Caused by meteorites or comets.

When meteorites and comets pass through the atmosphere, the violent friction causes them to release the material they carry, and most of the time they are released before reaching the ground.

These materials released into the atmosphere often fall with the rain, which eventually causes the rain to take on its color.

The other two main reasons are dust storms and volcanic eruptions, both of which also release large amounts of colored material into the atmosphere, which then fall with rain.

Although volcanic eruptions did occur around Kerala at that time, because many residents heard loud noises, researchers initially thought that it was most likely that a comet or a meteorite caused the "blood rain".

It is a relatively common event for a large comet or meteorite to explode over the earth due to the high temperature generated by friction, which may be the reason why the public hears the loud noise.

The results of the analysis of the "blood rain" sample came out soon. The pH value of the water was about 7, which was neutral, which could rule out the factors of volcanic eruptions, because the influence of volcanic eruptions often makes the water acidic.

In addition, the red precipitate is mainly composed of carbon and oxygen, accounting for 49.53% and 45.42% respectively (two different analysis results are slightly different, this data is one of them), and also contains silicon and iron, and other some elements.

This further confirms the "comet hypothesis", but why do the red particles appear to be regular circles? Even stranger, another group of researchers also found that the sediments contained at least seven amino acids.

If it really is a comet, then the comet is likely to carry organic matter, which means it may have brought alien life forms.

More conservative researchers, however, think it's just Earth's organic matter, arguing that the round red particles are the spores of a type of algae.

And through the collected "blood rain" sediment, they successfully cultivated the algae of the genus Orange algae. At the same time, during a field investigation on August 16, the researchers found that the trees in the area drenched by the "blood rain" had already grown. Algae of the genus Orange algae grow.

Therefore, the researchers judged that the intermittent "blood rain" that lasted for nearly 2 months was very likely caused by spores.

However, many people are opposed to this, because the algae of the genus Orange algae generally only release a large number of spores when the environment deteriorates sharply, and Kerala is rich in rain from July to September, according to The reason is not to release so many spores, you must know that it is 50 tons of spores.

These dissenters have raised other possibilities, including that a meteorite hit a swarm of bats in flight, that the red particles in the "blood rain" are red blood cells, and that other debris may have come from the meteorite's explosion element.

However, in order to appease the fears of the public, in November of that year, researchers announced that the blood rain was caused by spores, even though no biological DNA had been isolated at the time.

Finally: 2015 really closes the case

After this, the Indian state of Kerala has also experienced some "blood rain", the most recent one happened in 2012, and every "blood rain" visit will attract attention and discussion.

It wasn't until 2015 that the science behind the "blood rain" was truly unraveled. The red particles were indeed spores of the orange algae, and the researchers also isolated the DNA.

As for the loud noise heard by the public at that time, it may indeed be a meteorite or a comet exploding in the air, but it may be just some ordinary sonic boom, which has little to do with the red particles.

But puzzlingly, after analyzing the DNA of the tangerine algae on trees in Kerala, it was found that the spores did not come from India, but from Austria, more than 6,000 kilometers away. This means that the spores crossed the Arabian Sea with the wind and landed in Kerala.

Although this mode of transmission is the primary mode of transmission for some bacteria and fungi, algal spores are the first to be discovered.

Some dissenting people still do not believe this explanation, their reason is, why did not land along the way, but landed in Kerala?

The explanation given by the researchers is that we know very little about the movement patterns of the atmosphere.