The so-called habitable zone around a smaller dimmer star would be smaller, however, and a planet in that zone would complete its orbits more quickly, fast enough to have produced several blips noticeable by Kepler.
There is a string of orange high-pressure-sodium lights followed by the smaller, dimmer incandescent lights, which cast a glow similar to that of a metal halide lamp.
On January 26th, a group of astronomers led by Tiago Campante of Birmingham University, in Britain, announced the discovery of five rocky planets around Kepler-444, a star about 117 light-years from Earth that is smaller, dimmer and more orange than the sun.The most striking thing about this star, though, is its immense age.
That star is an M-dwarf, smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.
Dr. Oppenheimer is an old hand at finding small dim things.
Now, most Kuiper Belt objects are too small, dim and distant for astronomers to learn much about them.
He led me into a small, dim living room, and I sat down in a chair next to a table.
He showed a small, dim room where he tests out colors and lights, and a large room where he does painting & drawing.
The restaurant is a small, dim, rectangular room with booths on the sides and tables in the center; an artificial fireplace is suspended on one wall.
In the glare of their parent stars, however, such small, dim objects would not be easy to detect directly in images made with telescopes from Earth's vicinity.
