Science
fromWIRED
1 day agoHow Do Astronomers Find Planets in Other Solar Systems?
Exoplanets are detected indirectly by observing stellar wobble, Doppler shifts, and transits because planets are too faint and too close to their stars.
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.