A planet’s habitability, or ability to harbor life, results from a complex network of interactions between the planet itself, the system it’s a part of, and the star it orbits. The standard definition for a habitable planet is one that can sustain life for a significant period of time. As far as researchers know, this requires a planet to have liquid water. To detect this water from space, it must be on the planet’s surface. The region around a star where liquid surface water can exist on a planet’s surface is called the “habitable zone.” However, this definition is confined to our understanding of current and past life on Earth and the environments present on other planets. As researchers learn more and discover new environments in which life can sustain itself, the requirements for life on other planets may be redefined.
Different types of planets may drive processes that help or hinder habitability in different ways. For example, planets orbiting low-mass stars in the habitable zone may be tidally locked, with only one hemisphere facing the star at all times. Some planets may be limited to only periodic or local habitable regions on the surface if, e.g., they experience periodic global glaciations or are mostly desiccated. In order to understand the full range of planetary environments that could support life and generate detectable biosignatures, we require more detailed and complete models of diverse planetary conditions. In particular, understanding the processes that can maintain or lead to the loss of habitability on a planet requires the use of multiple coupled models that can examine these processes in detail, especially at the boundaries where these processes intersect each other.
Visit this page and read about the habitablde zone to prepare for this lab.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/search-for-life/habita…
https://astro.unl.edu/nativeapps/
Go to the link and select “Native aps” from the black menu bar near the top of the screen (this will look the same as the original page, but for some reason you can download from this approach!). Download the NAAP aps for your operating system and then navigate to the Habitability lab (it will be lab number 15 when you first open the NAAP lab program). You will be using the Circumstellar Habitabile Zone simulator to explore the possible habitable zone for the Sun and other star systems and their planets.
Exploring the habitable zone for the solar system and selected exoplanet systems.
