Photosynthesis Earth's atmosphere, and supplies all of the organic compounds and most of the energy necessary for life on Earth. Although photosynthesis is performed differently by different species, the process always begins when energy from light is absorbed by proteins called reaction centres that contain green chlorophyll pigments. In plants, these proteins are held inside organelles called chloroplasts, which are most abundant in leaf cells, while in bacteria they are embedded in the plasma membrane. In these light-dependent reactions, some energy is used to strip electrons from suitable substances, such as water, producing oxygen gas. The hydrogen freed by the splitting
Photon energy to date, very-high-energy gamma rays, have photon energies of 100 GeV to 100 TeV (10 to 10 electronvolts) or 0.016 microjoules to 0.016 millijoules. This corresponds to frequencies of 2.42 × 10 to 2.42 × 10 Hz. A photon with a wavelength equal to the Planck length would have an energy of about 7.671 × 10 eV or 1.229 × 10 joules (12.29 gigajoules). This is roughly the amount of energy produced by the world's most powerful coal-fired power station, the Taichung Power Plant, during a period of 2.25 seconds. During photosynthesis, specific chlorophyll molecules absorb red-light photons at a