David Kipping

So the thing is like fluctuating.

It's like a giant sheet that someone's waving up and down.

So that's why those stars have these wild fluctuations in brightness because they're just kind of undulating on their surface.

That's the name of the biggest one, I guess.

Oh, my God.

And what's crazy is that the most common type of star in the universe is even smaller than the sun.

Really?

Yeah, the most common type of star in the universe is a red dwarf.

75% of all stars are red dwarfs.

Only 10% of stars look like our sun.

So already that's kind of odd.

You kind of think all things being equal, how can we not live around a red dwarf?

Yeah, the difference is it's always easier to make a small thing, right?

It's kind of like having crumbs down your sofa or something, like breaking up, right?

It's easier to have small, dusty things than it is to have huge pieces of cookies still left in the bottom of your sofa.

So generally, it's pretty hard for the conditions to come together to make a gigantic, supermassive star.

In the early universe, those conditions were present more often because it was just so dense.

But as we go forward in time, it gets harder and harder to make those super huge behemoths.

These stars, they're called the type three population stars.

And we haven't found one of those.