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In a few years, space telescopes will investigate our Galaxy to detectevidence of life, mainly by observing rocky planets. In the last decade, theobservation of exoplanet atmospheres and the theoretical works on biosignaturegasses have experienced a considerable acceleration. The~most attractivefeature of the realm of exoplanets is that 40\% of M dwarfs host super-Earthswith a minimum mass between 1 and 30 Earth masses, orbital periods shorter than50 days, and radii between those of the Earth and Neptune (1--3.8 R$_\oplus$).Moreover, the recent finding of cyanobacteria able to use far-red (FR) lightfor oxygenic photosynthesis due to the synthesis of chlorophylls $d$ and $f$,extending in vivo light absorption up to 750\ nm, suggests the possibility ofexotic photosynthesis in planets around M dwarfs. Using innovative laboratoryinstrumentation, we exposed different cyanobacteria to an M dwarf starsimulated irradiation, comparing their responses to those under solar and FRsimulated lights.~As expected, in FR light, only the cyanobacteria able tosynthesize chlorophyll $d$ and $f$ could grow. Surprisingly, all strains, bothable or unable to use FR light, grew and photosynthesized under the M dwarfgenerated spectrum in a similar way to the solar light and much moreefficiently than under the FR one. Our findings highlight the importance ofsimulating both the visible and FR light components of an M dwarf spectrum tocorrectly evaluate the photosynthetic performances of oxygenic organismsexposed under such an exotic light~condition.

Super-Earths, M Dwarfs, and Photosynthetic Organisms: Habitability in the Lab