(between the hotter F and cooler K) comprise only 9% of the hydrogen-burning stars in the Milky Way. Such aged stars as red giants and white dwarfs are also unlikely to support life. Red giants are common in globular clusters and elliptical galaxies. White dwarfs are mostly dying stars that have already completed their red giant phase. Stars that become red giants expand into or overheat the habitable zones of their youth and middle age (though theoretically planets at much greater distances may then become habitable). An energy output that varies with the lifetime of the star will likely prevent life (e.g., as Cepheid variables). A sudden decrease, even if brief, may freeze the water of orbiting planets, and a significant increase may evaporate it and cause a greenhouse effect that prevents the oceans from reforming. All known life requires the complex chemistry of metallic elements. The absorption spectrum of a star reveals the presence of metals within, and studies of stellar spectra reveal that many, perhaps most, stars are poor in metals. Because heavy metals originate in supernova explosions, metallicity increases in the universe over time. Low metallicity characterizes the early universe: globular clusters and other stars that formed when the universe was young, stars in most galaxies other than large spirals, and stars in the outer regions of all galaxies. Metal-rich central stars capable of supporting complex life are therefore believed to be most common in the less dense regions of the larger spiral galaxies—where radiation also happens to be weak. The right arrangement of planets around the star Rare Earth proponents argue that a planetary system capable of sustaining complex life must be structured more or less like the Solar System, with small, rocky inner planets and massive outer gas giants. Without the protection of such "celestial vacuum cleaner" planets with strong gravitational pulls, other planets would be subject to more frequent catastrophic asteroid collisions. Observations of exoplanets have shown that arrangements of planets similar to the Solar System are rare. Most planetary systems have super-Earths, several times larger than Earth, close to their star, whereas the Solar System's inner region has only a few small rocky planets and none inside Mercury's orbit. Only 10% of stars have giant planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn, and those few rarely have stable, nearly circular orbits distant from their star. Konstantin Batygin and colleagues argue that these features can