In the summer of 2001 the sky above Kerala, India appeared to rain blood for a period of six weeks. Strange red drops fell from above, confusing locals and reminding some from afar of the classic anomalous phenomenon championed by the late Charles Fort—namely, a rain of toads—which has also been popularized in the closing scenes of movies like The Last Wave and Magnolia. But when scientists looked for an explanation of this abnormal occurrence, they found neither frogs nor blood. Their best guesses involve something even more unbelievable—an alien invasion.

Ok, so it’s downright phenomenal that lichens don’t need spacesuits for interstellar travel. Crazy even. Wildcrafting edible organic lichen outside your spacecraft may revolutionize our future travel gardens and meals, but that’s not what really gets my synapses firing. A recent article in The Register expands upon the details, Lichens love life in space.