All books

Professional

Apps About Coach Log in Start reading

Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Planetary habitability?

Definition 27.12 University Earth and Space Sciences — Year 3 · Chapter 27 — Planetary Atmospheres and Habitability

The planetary habitability of a planet is its capacity to keep liquid water at its surface over geological times: it receives a stellar flux within the limits of the habitable zone, it holds on to its atmosphere and its water against escape, and a long-term carbon cycle regulates its climate.

The habitable zone of an Earth-like planet, as the stellar flux it receives against the temperature of its star (shaded: between the moist greenhouse and the maximum greenhouse). Dotted: the empirical limits drawn from recent Venus and early Mars. The fits are those of a cloud-free climate model, valid from 2600 to 7200\, K.
The habitable zone of an Earth-like planet, as the stellar flux it receives against the temperature of its star (shaded: between the moist greenhouse and the maximum greenhouse). Dotted: the empirical limits drawn from recent Venus and early Mars. The fits are those of a cloud-free climate model, valid from 2600 to 7200 K7200\,\mathrm{K}.
Read in context →