03-02-2021, 02:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2021, 08:59 PM by AstroChara.)
(03-02-2021, 01:22 PM)iancampbell Wrote: I think it's worth mentioning that most plants on Earth are of a far from optimum colour if the criterion is efficiency of light absorption. The reason why plants are green is, of course, that green light is preferentially reflected rather than absorbed; but the peak of light intensity from Sol is in the green, so chlorophyll is pretty inefficient. Why? Evolution; it just happens that chlorophyll was the first pigment to be used, and evolution doesn't allow radical redesigns.
It might well be that alien plants use a more efficient light absorber, even in Earthlike conditions.
Just my $0.02.
Everything4404 didn't ask me to do this, but I can guess that they would've done this too.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-are-p...-20200730/