Wednesday, September 14, 2011

How would plants react to moving to another star?

Lets say we have an Earth-like planet, with oceans, and large tropical jungles, orbiting a binary star such as Delta Trianguli (ignoring the low metallicity), where the main star is a G0V, and the binary is K4V, and the natives developed the technology to move the whole planet to another star. They move it into orbit around Alpha Centauri B, which is a K0V or K1V. The motive is unimportant. How would the new location affect currently living plants?|||Orange stars probably emit less usable radiation for photosynthesis. Some plants may die if the useful radiation is low enough, but others may adapt by becoming darker (if they can last long enough - assuming there's still enough useful radiation to keep them at least barely alive). It's been speculated that plants on a planet around a red dwarf star would be black in order to absorb all of the reddish light and infared radiation (as red dwarfs emit more in the infrared than in visible). I figure that an orange star would emit more useful radiation than a red dwarf though, so maybe some plants would adapt by becoming darker green.|||Ignorance is bliss.|||Currently living plants would go extinct by such a change.|||How can you ignore the low-metallicy? Magnesium is the basis for the chloropyll molocule. No magnesium, not plants.|||Not much. Heat is radiation that will kip the plants alive. and the light from the new star will be enough for photosynthesis. How do you think astronauts kip there plants alive in space. Heat and Light.|||Burn and die. Maybe they're too close to the star, or maybe what they need has been diminished. Either way, I think they're gonna die.

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