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Indian scientists may have found
evidence of extra-terrestrial life

Delivering a public lecture on 'Search for extra terrestrial life' in Nagpur on Sunday, Narlikar said the findings were made only a few weeks ago and he was making the revelations public for the first time.

Narlikar, who led a team of Indian Space Research Organisation scientists, said that micro-organisms resembling coccus, fungal and rod-like bacillus were discovered in samples collected 25 to 41 kilometres above the earth's surface.

Biologists are now trying to verify the origins of the micro-organisms, Narlikar, chairman of the Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, said.

The chances of the microbial life having been deposited in the Earth's atmosphere by the debris of comets and other celestial objects could not be ruled out, he said.

Narlikar said that biologists are trying to verify the source of the micro-organisms. If their findings corroborate our theory, "it will open a new challenge for the scientific community," he said.

The ISRO scientists conducted the experiment using a cryosampler and this was only the second experiment of its kind in the world, Narlikar said.

The United States of America had conducted a similar study where some evidence of extra-terrestrial life was found, but the chances of some micro-organisms from earth having contaminated the samples could not be ruled out during that experiment, he said.

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