Using data gathered by NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler
spacecraft, the CfA researchers discovered that many red dwarf stars
harbor planets, and some of those planets are rocky, Earth-sized worlds.
Considering that red dwarfs, albeit optically dim, are the most
abundant type of stars in our galaxy, this means that even a small
percentage of them being host to Earthlike exoplanets puts the total
number of potentially habitable worlds very high — and some of them
could be right next door.