Researchers investigate how photosynthetic organisms on Earth could adapt to the light conditions of K-dwarf stars, potentially expanding the search for habitable exoplanets.
Potential of K-Dwarf Stars [6]
K-dwarf stars may be the best suited for studies of exoplanet habitability, suggest researchers. The result is that number of these smaller stars, possessing a mass ranging between 50 percent to 80% as much mass as our Sun, is higher than more massive stars and also their stable luminosity lasts longer.
In the new study, researchers looked at photosynthetic organisms like garden cress and cyanobacteria on Earth when illuminated by the light from a simulated K-dwarf star. This implies they might host life, and help lead the way toward finding habitable exoplanets around K-dwarfs.
FLEXIBILITY OF LIFE ON LAND
It showed the astonishing adaptability of Earthly photosynthetic life. The garden cress — a salad green known to most Norwegians — likewise grew in much the same way as usual and under this K-dwarf lamp showed very similar levels of photosynthesis as under natural or solar light.
Chroococcidiopsis sp, an extremophile cyanobacterium capable of tolerating various types of environmental stressors (Billi et al., 2013), used as the model organism in this experiment, also develop under both light treatments. This would imply that all sorts of life on land might possibly have not any difficulty adjusting to the bringing out K dwarfs light, extending exoplanet habitability farther in to these star systems.
Conclusion
The findings point to the hardiness and flexibility of life as it exists on Earth, hinting that perhaps life can flourish under myriad stellar scenarios apart from the one inhabiting our solar system. Studying how plants and their microbiomes respond to the radiation from various types of stars helps scientists better evaluate the habitability of exoplanets, which, in turn, makes it more likely that life can be confirmed elsewhere in our universe.
