Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Nocturnal Photosynthesis

+0
−0

It's a basic fact that most plants need sunlight to generate growth. Sure, they also need water and nutrients, but their reliance on sunlight is the one sole thing that separates them from animals.

Now, compare our sun to our moon. Even at its fullest, moonlight can only get to an apparent magnitude of -12.90, which is 1/400,000 as bright as our sun. To make matters worse, it's just a ball of unbreathable rock, which has a fairly low albedo, despite what the view of the moon would have you thinking. In short, moonlight is nowhere near strong enough for photosynthesis to occur.

But let's say that some alternate Earth is orbited by a Pluto-sized ball of ice, which is more reflective than rock. From a view of the night sky on that planet, this new icy moon, in its crescent, is 12,000 times brighter than our full moon. Which means that when this icy moon gets full, it's going to get even brighter. But will it be bright enough to encourage plants to photosynthesize in the dark of night?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/153351. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »