Quote:
Originally Posted by Neeper
If its a red dwarf, one would have to assume the star is much older than our sun and is closer to dying.
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Much older than the Sun? Maybe, maybe not.
Closer to dying? No. Red dwarfs live for hundreds of billions of years, even trillions.
A red dwarf is a main sequence star, just like the Sun. It is not to be confused with dying stars like red giants and red supergiants.
This is called a H-R Diagram. The curve in the middle is the main sequence. Anything not on the curve (the main sequence supergiants like Rigel and Deneb but not as far over as Betelgeuse are considered on the curve) is a dying star (giants) or degenerate remnant (white dwarfs). As you can see, both the Sun and the red dwarfs are on the curve, main sequence stars.