A super-Earth class exoplanet orbits within the habitable zone of a red dwarf just 37 light years away.
Japan's Subaru 8.2-metre telescope operates at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, observing the sky in the optical range. It was recently fitted with an IRD spectrograph to cover the infrared wavelengths. The new instrument will help to observe red dwarfs, which are much easier to distinguish in IR wavelengths than in visible ones. These old, small and faint stars account for most of the galactic population and are more often found in the vicinity of the solar system... →