Not green: scientists have discovered the likely true color of aliens

Scientists have said that alien life may be purple, not green.

SSPDaily reports this citing a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

According to the study, aliens may live on a planet similar to Earth, but it will not be as green as our planet. It may be completely different, which means that aliens may also be a different color.

Researchers believe that aliens could be purple because they would be covered in bacteria. They also suggest that their planet may have almost no visible light.

The new study found light signals coming from worlds that lack sunlight and oxygen, like many exoplanets found so far. The researchers explained that the dominant color that signals life on Earth is green as plants and bacteria convert sunlight into energy using green chlorophyll. On a planet that orbits smaller and dimmer stars, organisms are expected to survive if they carry out their metabolism using other infrared light. Bacteria that feed on infrared light exist in various niches of the Earth, especially in places where sunlight does not penetrate, such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents or muddy swamps.

For the study, astrobiologists from Cornell University grew different bacteria, measured the wavelengths of light they reflected, and modeled them with the light signals that can be seen on other worlds. They found that purple bacteria can survive through photosynthesis even in low light compared to plants. These bacteria use many forms of chlorophyll, which helps convert sunlight into food. This reaction does not lead to the formation of oxygen, and therefore the bacteria are not dependent on oxygen components, the researchers explained.

"We are just opening our eyes to these amazing worlds around us. Purple bacteria can survive and thrive in such a wide variety of conditions that it's easy to imagine. Purple might just be the new green," Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute in the Space Sciences Building, said.

"Our models show that, depending on the surface coverage of biota and cloud cover, a wide range of terrestrial planets may show signs of surface biopigments from purple bacteria," the researchers note in their paper. "Although it is not known whether life - or purple bacteria - could evolve on other worlds, purple could become the new green in the search for surface life."