Red dwarf facts for kids
A red dwarf is a kind of star. Red dwarf stars are smaller than half the size of the Sun. They are also cooler than most stars. Red dwarfs burn their fuel slowly, so they shine with less light than hot stars.
Red dwarf stars are the most common in our galaxy, at least near our sun. However, since red dwarf stars are cool and small, none can be found with the naked eye. The closest star to the Earth is named Proxima Centauri. The Latin word proxima means "nearest to". Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf.
Life and death
Red dwarfs can live trillions of years, much longer than brighter stars. A red dwarf dies when it burns all of its fuel. To start with, the fuel is the chemical element hydrogen. At present, no red dwarf star is known which has gone beyond this stage.
Red dwarfs are small stars that are around 0.2 solar mass (the sun is equal to 1 solar mass). This is small for a star but is still 60,000 times the mass of the Earth. They are formed in nebulas, like all stars are, and originally they are protostars. They start their nuclear fusion about 100,000 years after being created when they get their red glow, this is also where they get their heat. These stars burn at less than 4,000°K.
Even smaller stars are called brown dwarfs.
Images for kids
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The predicted main-sequence lifetime of a red dwarf plotted against its mass relative to the Sun.
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Gliese 623 is a pair of red dwarfs, with GJ 623a on the left and the fainter GJ 623b to the right of center.
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Illustration depicting AU Mic, an M-type (spectral class M1Ve) red dwarf star less than 0.7% the age of our Sun. The dark areas represent huge sunspot-like regions.
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An artist's impression of a planet with two exomoons orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf.
See also
In Spanish: Enana roja para niños
