The result of the investigation, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, cited by the Spanish agency EFE and which included researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), in Spain, concluded that more than 70% of the stars in the Milky Way are "M dwarfs", generally known as red dwarfs.

According to the investigation, this type of star is one of the coldest and least bright in the Milky Way.

According to the IAC, while stars like the Sun burn for about 10 billion years before becoming red giants, M dwarfs continue to shine for 100 billion years or more, which could mean an even longer window for the development of life.

The IAC emphasises that ultra-cool dwarf stars are very common in the Milky Way, but are so delicate that their planetary populations remain largely unexplored.

The scientific research team created Speculoos (Search for Planets Eclipsing Ultra-Cool Stars), a specialised network of professional telescopes that facilitates the exploration of ultra-cool dwarf stars.

According to the astrophysicist from the University of Liège (Belgium), Michael Gillon, and cited by EFE, Speculoos was designed "specifically to explore nearby ultra-cool dwarf stars in search of rocky planets", like the one recently found.

According to the specialist, it is likely that this exoplanet does not have an atmosphere, since it orbits much closer to its star than the Earth from the Sun, which "increases the temperature of its surface".

According to the investigation, the exoplanet, named SPECULOOS-3, has one side always facing the star, known as the day side, just like the Moon, which has one side always facing the Earth.

A year, that is, the time it takes the planet to orbit its star, lasts about 17 hours.

SPECULOOS-3 is slightly larger than Jupiter - the largest planet in the solar system - and is thousands of degrees cooler than the Sun, with an average temperature of 2,627 degrees Celsius.

However, the planet receives almost 16 times more energy per second than the Earth receives from the Sun, which increases the temperature of its surface.

The IAC researcher, Rui Alonso, also explains that "great progress is being made in the study of planets that orbit other stars".

"We have reached the stage where we can detect and study in detail Earth-sized exoplanets (...) and determine if any of them are habitable", he concludes.

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