PRIMITIVE LIFE OUTSIDE THE SOLAR SYSTEM: GENERALIZED CHLOROPHYLLS

摘要

Suppose an earth-like planet is discovered in the habitable zone of its parent star: it will then be possible to detect spectroscopic signatures of what is perhaps due to complex organic chemistry. A broad class of living organisms take their energy from the light of the parent star of their home planet. Whatever the physiological details are (including production or not of oxygen), this photosynthesis of organic material must result in the "pumping" of photons in the stellar spectrum. It must therefore lead to absorption bands in the star's spectrum reflected by the planet. We call these features "generalized chlorophylls", as they generalize the green color of terrestrial plants. The basic idea of our work is to estimate the existence or absence of this chlorophyll outside the solar system, leaving from the global spectrum of the Earth with wavelength between 400-2000 nm (Vis-Near IR).