Red dwarfs in the neighborhood.It can be hard to get to know all the people that live in your neighborhood. Keeping track of the stars in our part of the galaxy is getting harder, too. Astronomers recently found an additional 20 star systems that lie within just 33 light-years of Earth. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A light-year is the distance that light travels in 1 year--5.88 trillion miles. That may sound like a long way, but a few dozen light-years is practically next door when you consider the vast size of our galaxy, the Milky Way Milky Way, the galaxy of which the sun and solar system are a part, seen as a broad band of light arching across the night sky from horizon to horizon; if not blocked by the horizon, it would be seen as a circle around the entire sky. . Astronomers found the stars using a telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (sā`rō tōlō`lō), astronomical observatory located on Cerro Tololo peak, Chile, with offices in La Serena, about 40 mi (64 km) to the west. Funded by the U.S. near La Serena, Chile La Serena ("the serene one") is the second oldest city in Chile. The city, located 471 km north of Santiago, has a population of 147,815, according to the 2002 census. There are also 12,333 inhabitants of the immediately surrounding countryside. . The newfound stars are all red dwarfs, one of the most common types of stars in the Milky Way. Red dwarfs are faint stars. They range in size from about a tenth to half the mass of our sun. Because red dwarfs are so dim, they're hard to spot directly. Instead, astronomers look for telltale spots of light that appear to wiggle back and forth slowly as Earth goes around the sun. The bigger the wiggle they observe, the closer the star is. Fifteen of the newfound stars are out there on their own, but the astronomers noted one group of two stars and two groups of three stars among the new discoveries. This finding gives insight into how often stars occur in such small groups. Finding new stars also gives astronomers new places to look for planets outside of our solar system solar system, the sun and the surrounding planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound by its gravity. The sun is by far the most massive part of the solar system, containing almost 99.9% of the system's total mass. . "Red dwarf stars Noun 1. red dwarf star - a small, old, relatively cool star; approximately 100 times the mass of Jupiter red dwarf flare star - a red dwarf star in which luminosity can change several magnitudes in a few minutes ... are the closest and most numerous stars to us, so they are the best places to look for planets," says astronomer Alan Boss Alan P. Boss (born July 20, 1951, in Lakewood, Ohio) is an American astrophysicist. Educated at the University of South Florida and the University of California, Santa Barbara, Boss is now a world leader in stellar and planetary system formation and the study of extrasolar planets, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington  The introduction to this article may be too long. Please help improve the introduction by moving some material from it into the body of the article according to the suggestions at , D.C. Astronomers have already found planets orbiting other nearby red dwarfs. But they've assumed that life on such planets would be impossible. That's because, for a planet to have liquid water, it would have to orbit the star very closely. But such a close-in planet would find itself rotating so that one side always faces the star, making it too hot for life. The other side would always face away, making it way too cold. However, if such a planet happened to have a thick atmosphere, for example, the heat might spread out enough to make the planet habitable habitable adj. referring to a residence that is safe and can be occupied in reasonable comfort. Although standards vary by region, the premises should be closed in against the weather, provide running water, access to decent toilets and bathing facilities, heating, . So, astronomers are now more hopeful than they were before that such planets may harbor life. Astronomers expect to find even more nearby star systems. So, the possibilities for life elsewhere in the universe are bound to multiply.--E. Sohn |
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