Scientists Propose Black Vegetation on Circumbinary Planets

Key facts

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kepler mission and other observatories have confirmed the existence of circumbinary planets, which are worlds that orbit two suns.
• Researchers from Cornell University, led by Dr Jack O'Malley-James, explored how photosynthetic organisms might evolve under different lighting conditions in binary star systems.
• The study suggests that depending on starlight intensity and colour, alien vegetation could appear black, dark grey, red, or orange.
• Black photosynthetic organisms are proposed as an efficient solution for maximising energy capture on worlds illuminated by stars emitting high levels of infrared radiation.
• Astronomers search for biosignatures such as the vegetation red edge, a spectral feature produced by chlorophyll on Earth, to identify life on exoplanets.