"Red dwarfs, or M dwarfs, are the most tempting places to seek alien Earths because they're the most abundant and enduring stars. They make up the majority of the stars in the Milky Way and shine with a slow thermonuclear simmer that should allow them to live exponentially longer than mosteven, say, for 14 trillion years, or 1,000 times the current age of the universe."
"I think we are in the golden age of M dwarfs, where they offer a huge amount of possibilitythey are the best place to detect small Earth-sized planets, says Natalie Hinkel, a planetary astrophysicist at Louisiana State University, who is not a member of the NIRPS team. The M Dwarf Frontier NIRPS can find planets via the radial velocity (RV) method, which looks for the tiny gravitational tug they exert on their stars."
NIRPS (Near-Infrared Planet Searcher) is a high-precision instrument built to detect planets orbiting red dwarf (M dwarf) stars by observing their infrared and near-infrared emission. M dwarfs are the most numerous and longest-lived stars in the galaxy, making them prime targets for discovering potentially Earth-like worlds. Their small size and low luminosity make planets difficult to detect and characterize using optical instruments. NIRPS applies the radial-velocity method to measure tiny gravitational tugs that induce slight shifts in stellar spectra, improving the ability to find and study small, nearby Earth-sized planets.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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