In search for alien life, purple may be the new green
April 16, 2024
April 16, 2024
ITHACA, New York, April 16 -- Cornell University issued the following news:
From house plants and gardens to fields and forests, green is the color we most associate with surface life on Earth, where conditions favored the evolution of organisms that perform oxygen-producing photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll a.
But an Earth-like planet orbiting another star might look very different, potentially covered by bacteria that receive little or no visible ligh . . .
From house plants and gardens to fields and forests, green is the color we most associate with surface life on Earth, where conditions favored the evolution of organisms that perform oxygen-producing photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll a.
But an Earth-like planet orbiting another star might look very different, potentially covered by bacteria that receive little or no visible ligh . . .