Science, Technology and Society 361: "Mars Exploration" -- Fall 2010

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Plants on Mars May Not Be Green...

NASA scientists now think that they can predict what color plants on alien planets will be. The researchers have worked out which wavelengths of light would hit the surface of potential life-bearing planets in other solar systems and worked out what kinds of light-gathering pigments plant-like organisms would need to exploit them. The team hope that the predictions could be used to help detect the presence of life on planets. They have not yet considered the kinds of plants that would grow on planets.