💡 Trivia Thanks To Ancient Microbes, The Earth May Have Once Been Purple

Beatriz9

ᴇxᴛʀᴅɴʀʏᴡᴍɴ
Legendary
1000008399.webp

When viewed from space, Earth appears blue (water) with bits of green (land with plants on it). However, one scientist posits that the Earth may have been purple a long time ago, thanks to ancient microbes that obtained energy from the sun using retinal rather than chlorophyll, the pigment which makes plants appear green.

Since retinal absorbs the green light that makes up most of the sun's energy and reflects back violet and red light, the combination would have given the planet a purple tint.

(c) Ranker
 

About this Thread

  • 1
    Replies
  • 112
    Views
  • 2
    Participants
Last reply from:
kenesuino

Trending Topics

Online now

Members online
1,045
Guests online
3,338
Total visitors
4,383

Forum statistics

Threads
2,328,461
Posts
29,242,465
Members
1,159,797
Latest member
alimartz001
Back
Top