A new study suggests that one in three planets around red dwarfs, the most stars in our galaxy, is potentially habitable. These conclusions were made by considering data from the Gaia and Kepler telescopes. The combined data made it possible to learn about the orbits of previously discovered exoplanets, of which about 30% turned out to be “compatible” with life.

As the scientists admitted, they lacked precise distances to target stars to complete the work on eccentricity estimates of exoplanets’ orbits. These data were provided by the European Gaia astrometric satellite. Based on data from Gaia and data from the Kepler telescope, which hunts for exoplanets directly (which it would look for by decreases in the brightness of stars if a planet passed through their disk), the orbits of 163 exoplanets in red dwarfs were reproduced.

Red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy. They are the size of Jupiter so planets can move in closer orbits around them without burning them. The question is different. If the orbits are drastically different from circular ones, then even in the habitable zone where water can be in the liquid phase, the gravitational “oscillation” will cause the planets to become tidal warming, ultimately rendering them unsuitable for biological life.

The study showed that one-third of the exoplanets studied have more or less circular orbits, making them suitable candidates for the role of incubator for life. Also, the M-type dwarf star has more exoplanets, so they all have circular orbits. In contrast, single planets, as a rule, have rather long orbits and should not be given primary attention in the search for life. Because there are billions of M-type dwarf stars in our galaxy, there could be hundreds of millions of potentially inhabited worlds. And now we know better from which worlds we should begin to seek calm.