How likely is life on planets orbiting red dwarf stars?

A look at the possibilities of Life around the most common stars in the Universe. An artist's ... So the question that matters is whether the habitable zone planets around red dwarf stars are truly habitable or not? ... Comparison of orbits of Proxima b around the red dwarf star to that of Mercury around our Sun. read more

Consequently, any planet orbiting a red dwarf would have to have a low semimajor axis in order to maintain Earth-like surface temperature, from 0.3 astronomical units (AU) for a relatively luminous red dwarf like Lacaille 8760 to 0.032 AU for a smaller star like Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Solar System. read more

Life on planets orbiting red dwarfs is possible, but sustaining advanced life may be problematic. As you can see in the image below, on the right in magenta are the inner and outer edge of the Goldilocks zone for our Sun (a G-type main-sequence star), and on the left the same for a K-dwarf and M-dwarf (both red dwarfs) respectively. read more

TRAPPIST-1, a red dwarf star 39 light-years away from us, has seven Earth-size planets orbiting it. It's likely that all of these planets are rocky and may possibly harbor liquid water. Red dwarf stars are the most abundant type of star in the Milky Way galaxy. read more