14 DAY TRIAL // Here on Earth, plants produce oxygen through a process called photosynthesis. They take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and then use optical wavelengths from sunlight to carry out a conversion process. On alien worlds, photosynthesis may not be dependent on the same wavelengths.
In other words, astrobiologists believe that the process may yield the same results even if the infrared or ultraviolet component of starlight is more pronounced that here. This is very significant because red dwarfs, some of the most common stars in the Universe, emit very infrared-rich light.
“It was assumed that, due to the stringent energy requirements for splitting water molecules, longer wavelengths of light (which have lower energy) could not be used for oxygenic photosynthesis,” NASA postdoctoral researcher Steve Mielke explains, quoted by Astrobiology Magazine.
What this implies is that astronomers may start looking for life signatures on worlds that were previously thought to be inhospitable to life.