Red dwarfs are the most common stars in the Milky Way, about three-quarters of them

When we picture the galaxy, we tend to imagine brilliant suns, but the typical star in the Milky Way is nothing like ours. Roughly three out of every four stars are red dwarfs: small, cool stars somewhere between about a thirteenth and half the mass of the Sun.

They burn their fuel slowly and frugally, glowing a dim reddish colour, which makes them remarkably long-lived but also remarkably hard to see. Not a single red dwarf is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye from Earth, even though they dominate the galaxy’s population — including Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun.

Stars genuinely like our own are comparatively rare, making up only around eight percent of the galaxy, and truly massive, brilliant stars are rarer still.

The real majority of the Milky Way is a quiet crowd of faint red embers burning patiently in the dark.