Open AccessPolonnaruwa Stones Revisited – Evidence for Non-Terrestrial Life
Author(s) -
Milton Wainwright,
N. C. Wickramasinghe
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advances in astrophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2415-6469
pISSN - 2415-6450
DOI - 10.22606/adap.2021.62001
Subject(s) - meteorite , asteroid , astrobiology , geology , acritarch , paleontology , fell , diatom , earth science , biology , oceanography
Recent discoveries of highly porous low-density carbonaceous asteroids such as 101955 Bennu and Ryugu have motivated a re-examination of the Polonnaruwa stones which fell in central Sri Lanka on 27 December 2012 following a fireball sighting. Previous discoveries of biological entities including fossilized extinct microorganisms (acritarchs) have tended to be discounted as contaminants for the reason that the stones did not fit into a known meteorite category. In view of the new data from space exploration we re-examine samples of the Polonnaruwa stones and confirm earlier evidence for the existence of diatom frustules and other complex biology.