Exoplanet Estimate of the Day

Astronomers estimate that about 40 percent of red dwarf star systems may contain Earth-sized planets with the conditions to support life.

A team working with the European Southern Observatory's HARPS spectrograph has observed 102 different red dwarf stars over the past six years, finding nine "super-earths" -- planets between 1 and 10 Earth-masses -- in the "habitable zone" where tempera