Small, dim stars could still support life

Life may be possible around red dwarfs after all. Researchers had long assumed that the small suns (artist’s conception above), which make up about three out of every four stars in the Milky Way, were too dim to provide enough light to any photosynthetic organisms on planets that orbited them. But new research, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Astrobiology, suggests that—based on calculations of exactly how much visible light would be available—such organisms would get enough light to survive, much like plants in Earth’s Arctic Circle subsist on significantly less light than their counterparts at lower latitudes.