Silly me, I should have known that exobiology isn't anywhere as interesting to amateur astronomers as bowling balls, urine-powered batteries, and Thomas Aquinas.
Well where else can you combine the three? I was actually considering a comment on your topic. Given that it's the red light that's of interest to earthbound plants (green's reflected because it isn't utilized), one might expect that stars on the redder end of the spectrum might be of interest to any plant considering a relocation. Of course it's possible that some form of photosynthesis could make use of shorter wavelengths, but blue stars tend to put out a lot of unpleasant stuff. We need to figure out a way to make this topic controversial so others will respond. mc
It needn't be just a process to produce carbohydrates and sugars- think of a photo-driven process that produces just about any substance that could yield energy if 'metabolized' in a reasonably plausable process. Of course you may need to theorize an entirely new biology to accomodate it. Seems I've seen either a Website or documentary lately that postulated animals that used sunlight to produce food. They looked like big mushrooms, but were mobile and competed for sun-lit real estate. Does that ring a bell? --- Michael Carnes <michaelcarnes@earthlink.net> wrote:
Given that it's the red light that's of interest to earthbound plants (green's reflected because it isn't utilized), one might expect that stars on the redder end of the spectrum might be of interest to any plant considering a relocation. Of course it's possible that some form of photosynthesis could make use of shorter wavelengths, but blue stars tend to put out a lot of unpleasant stuff.
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participants (2)
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Chuck Hards -
Michael Carnes