Red Dwarf Stars
Discover amazing facts about red dwarf stars, the small, cool, and incredibly long-lived stars that make up most of our galaxy
Red dwarf stars appear dim and orange-red, but they're the most common type of star in our galaxy
Red dwarf stars are the quiet neighbors of our galaxy - they're small, cool, and incredibly long-lived! These stars make up about 75% of all stars in the Milky Way, making them the most common type of star in the universe. Red dwarfs are much smaller than our Sun, typically only 10% to 50% of the Sun's mass, and they burn their fuel so slowly that they can live for hundreds of billions or even trillions of years. That's much longer than the universe has even existed!
Because red dwarfs are small and cool, they appear dim and reddish-orange in color. Most are too faint to see with the naked eye, even though many are relatively close to us. Red dwarfs are particularly exciting to astronomers because many have planets orbiting around them, and some of these planets might be in the "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could exist. Since red dwarfs live so long, any life on their planets would have plenty of time to develop and evolve.
Five Famous Red Dwarfs:
Proxima Centauri - The closest star to our solar system at just 4.24 light-years away. It has at least two planets, including one that might have liquid water!
Photo by ESA/Hubble & NASA
Wolf 359 - Located 7.9 light-years away in the constellation Leo, this red dwarf is one of the faintest stars near our solar system.
Lalande 21185 - A red dwarf 8.3 light-years away that was once thought to have planets but is now known to have at least two confirmed worlds.
UV Ceti - A "flare star" that occasionally brightens dramatically when it releases bursts of energy, located 8.7 light-years away.
Ross 154 - A nearby red dwarf 9.7 light-years away that rotates very quickly, completing one spin in just 2.87 days.
