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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.

The red rain microbes, which caused red rain phenomenon in Kerala, India, exhibit many characteristics much different from conventional microorganisms. Previous study indicates that these microbes are possibly of extraterrestrial origin. Their ability to multiply at extreme high temperature of 300°C and the unusual autofluorescence of their biomolecules are some of their extraordinary properties. Their molecular composition is yet to be identified. In this paper we report the growth pattern of these novel microbes at temperatures below 100°C as a minimal approach to show their biological nature. Automated turbidity measurement of the cell culture indicate standard microbial growth curve. Increase in the cell population is faster at higher temperatures. Details of this investigation and results are discussed.

A number of cases of yellow colored rain occurred in Kerala, India in July-August 2001 along with the red rain phenomenon. Recently during the end of July 2008 a few cases of yellow colored rain again occurred in Kerala and during the same time, unusual rain, termed as "blood rain" occurred in Bagado, Colombia. In this paper we show that the yellow rain and red rain can have a common origin. The yellow rainwater also exhibits the same unusual autofluorescence reported earlier for the cultured red rain microbes. Reasons for considering extraterrestrial origin for these colored rains are discussed.

The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala, India are now considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form. These cells can undergo rapid replication even at an extreme high temperature of 300 deg C. They can also be cultured in diverse unconventional chemical substrates. The molecular composition of these cells is yet to be identified. This paper reports the unusual autofluorescence characteristic of the cultured red rain cells. A spectrofluorimetric study has been performed to investigate this, which shows a systematic shift of the fluorescence emission peak wavelength as the excitation wavelength is increased. Conventional biomolecules are not known to have this property. Details of this investigation and the results are discussed.