Speaker
Description
Nearly half a century ago, NASA defined the specific wavelength of the vegetation Red Edge - the sharp, sudden increase of plant reflectance between the red and infrared regions of the light spectrum. Although the Red Edge is now routinely used as an indicator of chlorophyll concentration and plant stress, a molecular-level understanding of this global-scale phenomenon remained elusive. Combining expertise in geobiology, physics, astronomy, and planetary chemistry, we report the first multi-scale description of the origin of the Red Edge on Earth, unveiling additional spectral features that have only recently been verified. Extending our understanding toward exoplanets orbiting distant stars, we predict a direct relationship between stellar properties and the photosynthetic life that could have evolved on exoplanets.
Our predictions will be tested in the coming years as ground- and space-based observatories continue to aim toward characterizing distant exoplanets.