Would living on around Alpha Centauri change how our eyes see color?

I am writing a sci fi novel in which one of the primary factions is a lost space colony sent to Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C) roughly 350 years prior on a generation ship. The trip took roughly 80 years, leaving humans living independently in the system for around 270 years. I am playing with the idea of diverging evolution and the thought occurred to me that the exposure to light (as a component of radiation) produced not just by a different sun but three suns (as Alpha Centauri is a trinary system) is likely to cause our sight to change.

How would light in the Alpha Centauri system affect our vision long term?

More specifically I am interested in whether or not this might affect our ability to see further into the spectrum in either direction or even decrease our ability to do so. Also, whether or not it would affect the ability to distinguish similar colors such as separating blue from green and in-between variations like cyan and turquoise. Is there a possibility these colors may seem to blur together or that they might be more finely distinguished (not limited to examples).

For background, I imagine the colonists living primarily in sealed habitats both on planet and in space. There is no terraforming or miraculously habitable planets so they are mainly exposed to artificial light, but it is widely spread and common for individuals to both go on spacewalks and for habitats to have observation areas with large windows, which should allow for ample exposure to real sunlight. Lastly, there has been no overlap with any other humans since the generation ship left Sol, and the relatively recent development of limited FTL travel is part of what kicks off the story.

Obviously this is an interesting overlap between color theory, human biology, and physics, so I don't expect totally definite answers, but references would be nice if possible. The main reason behind this question is because I think it would be interesting if there was a situation in which an individual from Alpha Centauri could literally not read a display because of the color scheme, or if conversely they could see something that someone from Sol could not.

posted almost 5 years ago

TitaniumTurtle‭

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