Small, red and hospitable

They might actually be our best bet. The researchers suggest that K dwarfs may be the most promising type of star for hosting habitable planets.They presented their findings Wednesday at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu.

K dwarfs are a type of red dwarf — stars smaller and redder than our sun and other “G-type” stars. But among red dwarfs, they’re the larger ones. Red dwarfs on the smaller end of the spectrum are called M dwarfs.



The majority of stars in the Milky Way galaxy are red dwarfs. For that reason, astronomers have been very interested in learning what surface conditions — and thus the potential for hosting organisms — would be like for planets orbiting these stars. One big concern is that M dwarfs tend to give off a lot of high-energy X-ray and UV radiation, which can be harmful for life.