About the episode
What would we like to know: if there is life on other planets, what does it look like? We now see much more creative depictions of space aliens in films, for example, than the green figures of long ago, but it remains a persistent image.
Now there are a number of astronomers who show in a new study that purple may be the color we should be looking for. They think this because a purple bacterium, which was also present in large numbers on the early Earth, would be an excellent candidate for life on distant planets.
The bacterium does well in a lot of different conditions. The microorganism uses a purple-tinted molecule to convert sunlight into energy. And this should be able to be spotted from Earth with the new generation of telescopes.
Because organisms that convert energy with molecules with a green pigment – think plants and algae – became predominant on Earth and we know the most about them, that is also what has been much sought after. But these scientists like to add some color to it.
They have now selected the chemical fingerprint of the purple bacteria as thoroughly as possible, so that we can add it to the search list.
Read more about the research here: Sorry, Little Green Men: Alien Life Might Actually Be Purple
