The Diversity of the "Goldilocks Zone" and Planets (VIDEO)

As I promised, I'd pass along some cool things from the world of Exoplanets, Astrobiology and Comparative Planetology as I find them.

The video below was recorded two days ago at the SETI institute and features a subject we talk about a lot: Habitable or "Goldilocks" Zones.

Over the last few years the field of exoplanets has grown rapidly from just raw detection of planets to now include learning more about what their conditions are like. We've now got cloud maps of several large gas giant exoplanets. And we've begun to learn the density and thus likely composition of others smaller, rocky worlds like our Earth.




This process of learning more about these far away worlds is known to us astronomers as exoplanet characterization. A key step towards this characterization is the determination of which planets occupy the Habitable Zone (HZ) of their host stars.







As the data from NASA's Kepler mission continues to be processed, the orbital period sensitivity is increasing and we now know there are numerous exoplanets which occupy the HZ of their host stars.



In the talk below, Dr. Kane will describe the properties of the HZ, the dependence on the types of stars these planets orbit, and the current state of exoplanet detections in the HZ.

Along the way Dr. Kane will attempt to dispel some common misconceptions regarding the Habitable Zone.

Dr. Kane will relate HZ results to the calculation of the frequency of planets like Earth and the frequency of planets like Venus within our Milky Way Galaxy.

Finally, Dr. Kane will present several case studies of Habitable Zone Kepler planets, including circumbinary planets (planets which orbit two stars like Tatooine in Star Wars) for which the Habitable Zones are time-dependent.



Enjoy!

That was quite an elaborate post. You clearly put a lot of work into it, so it would be a shame if it went waste.

So please give us a summary of what it says in that 55-minute video. I'm very busy these days and can't spare an hour to watch a video unless it's really, really worth it.

originally posted by: Astyanax
That was quite an elaborate post. You clearly put a lot of work into it, so it would be a shame if it went waste.

So please give us a summary of what it says in that 55-minute video. I'm very busy these days and can't spare an hour to watch a video unless it's really, really worth it.

If you're interested in this subject it's really, really, worth it. Otherwise you can save it to your favorites for the next time you have extended downtime (that's what I do.)

a reply to: JadeStar

I suppose that's 'no', then.

Thanks, all the same.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: JadeStar

I suppose that's 'no', then.

Thanks, all the same.

I don't know what you spend your time on but I've found that summaries of complex subjects tend to be a bigger waste of time than digging in and learning something beyond a soundbite.

Many thanks for all the effort you have put in to this excellent post !

Terrific !

originally posted by: MrJohnSmith
Many thanks for all the effort you have put in to this excellent post !

Terrific !

Thanks. If you have any questions let me know. If I don't have an answer I'll ask someone who does

a reply to: JadeStar

How old are you? In your twenties?

I'm fifty-six. I don't have the kind of time you have.

But thanks for the... advice.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: JadeStar

How old are you? In your twenties?

Yes.

I'm fifty-six. I don't have the kind of time you have.

But thanks for the... advice.

I thought people who were retired had more time not less?

Great version of a chart I posted earlier but with Kepler-186f (the 'Earth Cousin') planet and the fiction planet from the book and movie "Dune" placed on it.



And one featuring the fraction of stars which have an earthlike planet in a habitable zone orbit:



up to 48% for M-stars and around 22% for F, G (our sun is a G2V star) and K stars.