habitable zones
Where life thrives
Habitable zones are the regions around stars where conditions might support liquid water on a planet's surface—neither too hot nor too cold.
Also called Goldilocks zones, after the fairy tale's "just right" porridge.
Earth sits within our sun's habitable zone.
The term appears frequently in discussions of exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life: Astronomers identified three planets in the star's habitable zone.
- habitabilitySuitability for dwelling
- Earth-like planetRocky world with liquid water potential
- exoplanetsWorlds orbiting other stars
- biosignaturesDetectable signs of life
- technosignaturesIndicators of extraterrestrial technology
liquid water · Drake equation · super-Earths · rocky planet · water world · astrobiology · circumstellar · star system · extremophiles · outer space · astrophysics · main sequence · Kepler · solar system · pale blue dot · red dwarf · oxygen · atmospheric pressures
habitable zonesdead zones
Areas lacking life or signal
death zones · kill zones · exclusion zones · vacuum of space · lunar surface
habitable zoneshellscapes
Scenes of apocalyptic devastation
wastelands · death zones · extreme environments · no-man's-land · harsh environments
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