Balloon up in the sky to study living organisms

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JAN. 21. As part of the `Cryogenic Sampler' experiment to look for life in the upper atmosphere, a high altitude balloon was successfully launched from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Balloon Facility here in the early hours of Sunday.

The experiment was being conducted by a group of scientists led by Prof. Jayant Narlikar, Director, Inter- University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.

The balloon experiment was aborted earlier on December 10 and 11 last year.

In a press release, Dr. P.M. Bhargava, former Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), who is looking after the microbiological investigations along with Mr. Rajaratnam, Project Director, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said the objectives of the flight was to test the possibility of living organisms being part of the 100 tonnes of material which the Earth received from space every day.

Dr. Bhargava confirmed that all the systems in the experiment worked perfectly and the samples collected at the various altitudes would be analysed in detail for their microbiological content and profile by Dr. S. Shivaji and his colleagues at the CCMB. A helicopter piloted by Col. Jayanth Poovaiah was used to track the payload in real time and it was recovered about 397 km southwest of the City.

The experiment was based on the suggestion made by British Astrophysicist and science fiction writer Fred Hoyle and his Sri Lankan colleague, Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe, that the Earth was being constantly invaded by micro-organisms from space.

This experiment supported by ISRO was the first such to be conducted anywhere in the world.

The other members of the team were Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe, University of Cardiff, and Dr. S. Ramadurai, TIFR, Mumbai, the release added.

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