From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Just read this article <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260130-how-deep-caves-are-transforming-our-search-for-extraterrestrial-life>
about cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae, the bugs that invented
chlorophyll for photosynthesis) living deep in a cave where there no
visible light should normally penetrate.

Turns out they are photosynthesizing using the energy from infrared
light, which gets in a lot further than visible light, because rocks
are so shiny in those longer wavelengths (who knew? ;)). And their
version of chlorophyll is better optimized for such wavelengths than
the regular kind found out in the open on the EarthrCOs surface.

It always struck me that there was a mismatch between the colour of
chlorophyll and the colour of our Sun. Our Sun is commonly described
as a yellow(ish) star, which means that the colour of a surface that
would maximally absorb solar radiation would be more like blue, not
green -- basically, you want a surface that appears close to black
under the incident radiation.

Conversely, green chlorophyll would be most efficient under a red
star. Such as a red dwarf, of which there are lots more around than
stars like our Sun -- itrCOs just that, being small and dim, theyrCOre
rather hard to spot.

I had this idea for an SF story once, where alien plants, growing
under a red Sun, happened to have a blue chlorophyll-equivalent
(suboptimal). Some of these were brought back to Earth, where they
thrived under our Sun. Conversely, some green Earth plants were taken
to that planet, where they in turn grew like crazy under the alien
Sun.

And both became noxious weeds, displacing the native plants on the
respective planets ...
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