EXOPLANETS
Do smaller stars generally host smaller planets?
Planets form from the constant accumulation of material during a star’s young years
The Sun is a typical star, but many smaller stars exist in the universe. Red dwarfs are the smallest stars, measuring about 10 to 50 per cent the size of the Sun. Over the past two decades, many planets have been detected around such red dwarf stars. Surprisingly, these worlds are not much different from those found around Sun-like stars. Many of them are rocky, Earthlike planets, like the seven planets detected around the TRAPPIST-1 star and the two planets around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun.