Chlorophyll found that will work with a redder star

[Martin]

Most stars are somewhat less massive and somewhat cooler than the sun. In fact the average is about half solar mass. This means the light from them is REDDER.

More like the light from a 100 watt lightbulb-----the tungsten filament is about 3000 kelvin, roughly half the sun surface temp.

 

that means that in other planetary systems, light around 700 nanometers is relatively much more abundant. That is down around the borderline with infrared. Incandescent lightbulbs make a lot of infrared which is why they are so inefficient. You cant see most of the photons coming off the filament.

 

If humans are to develop a type of algae which will thrive on common ocean planets then it would help to have chlorophyll that eats light on the infrared edge.

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For the first time a type of chlorophyll has been found that uses light of 700 nm---on the edge of infrared. They found it in some scum on a rock.

 

The researchers named it Chlorophyll D.

 

There are half a dozen other types of chlorophyll, the most common IIRC being Chlorophyll A. This scum was found growing in a layer underneath some other scum that was using Chlorophyll A, but was semitransparent to the longer wave light, so they were in a sense cooperating to get more good out of the light.

 

I was thinking something like this would have to be engineered. I'm glad they found it.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/asu-rdg020708.php

 

also see Eurekalert summary

http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/agriculture.php

 

"Public Release: 7-Feb-2008

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Researchers decode genetics of rare photosynthetic bacterium

A bacterium that harvests far-red light by making a rare form of chlorophyll (chlorophyll d) has revealed its genetic secrets, according to a team of researchers who recently sequenced the bacteria's genome. The researchers, from Arizona State University and Washington University, St. Louis, report their findings in the current online edition (Feb. 4) of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

National Science Foundation

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sciencedaily calls it "Living on the Red Edge"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080204172212.htm

 

If humans try to spread the spores of life to other planetary systems-----to extend the scope of evolution----then some of that life will quite likely be "living on the red edge"----will evolve different eyes etc etc

[Mr Skeptic]

Now the obvious question (to me) is, can we put this Chlorophyll D in our plants that already have Chlorophyll A and B, to make them more efficient, hence improving our food and biofuels production? According to wiki, Chlorophyll D is similar in structure to Chlorophyll A and B which already play nice together.

[YT2095]

and the Obvious question to ME is can this be used to Teraform a Planet?

 

say Mars for instance (it`s Plenty Red).

[Edtharan]

and the Obvious question to ME is can this be used to Teraform a Planet?

 

say Mars for instance (it`s Plenty Red).

The colour of Mars is not caused by it parent star (our sun) being Red. If it was, then it would be just as red here on Earth. It is red because of the large amounts of Iron Oxide (yes rust) in the dust of the planet. The sunlight is weaker because it is further away from the sun, but the light has the same wavelengths as we get here on Earth. So these kinds of organisms with the Chlorophyll D would not do any better than here on Earth (and actually do worse due to the less sunlight reaching the planet).

 

Now the obvious question (to me) is, can we put this Chlorophyll D in our plants that already have Chlorophyll A and B

This might help an organisms survive on Mars as it would be capturing more of the spectrum and so it might get just that little bit more energy. However, it would be a cost/expendature problem. IF the costs of producing the Chlorophyll D was less than the benifit it recieved by having it, then it would not be viable.