"They already thrive here in certain niches," said study lead author Lígia Fonseca Coelho of the Carl Sagan Institute in New York. "Just imagine if they were not competing with green plants, algae and bacteria: A red sun could give them the most favorable conditions for photosynthesis."

On many exoplanets, the best clue that life is present may be a purple hue. New research into some of Earth's most extreme bacteria explains why.

Green is a sign of life on Earth, but other habitable planets could be teeming with purple microbes that we should be able to detect with telescopes.

In the quest to discover life beyond our planet, the traditional green color commonly linked with terrestrial life might not be the most reliable sign. An Earth-like planet orbiting another star might look very different,

The search for alien life has gotten a bit more interesting thanks to new research on the possible existence of purple bacteria on exoplanets.

New alien hunting using purple bacteria. When we imagine a planet orbiting another star that could potentially support life, our minds naturally jump to what we know best – Eart

From house plants and gardens to fields and forests, green is the color we most associate with surface life on Earth, where conditions favored the evolution of organisms that perform oxygen-producing