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Habitability of Other Planets and Satellites pp 3–12Cite as

The Habitable Zone: Basic Concepts

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 28))

Abstract

The detection of exoplanets has undergone extraordinary growth over the past couple of decades since substellar companions were detected around HD 114762 (Latham et al., 9 1992, and 51 Peg (Mayor and Queloz, 1995. From there, the field rapidly expanded from the exclusivity of exoplanet detection to include exoplanet characterization. This has been largely facilitated by the discovery of transiting planets which allows unique opportunities to study the transmission and absorption properties of their atmospheres during primary transit (Agol et al., 2010; Knutson et al., 2007 and secondary eclipse (Charbonneau et al., 2005; Richardson et al., 2007. In addition, studies of phase curves allow insight into the thermal and albedo atmospheric properties (Kane and Gelino, 2010, 2011. These studies are being applied to smaller planets as our detection sensitivity pushes down into the super-Earth regime (Bean et al., 2011; Croll et al., 2011.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, Caltech, MS 100-22, 770 South Wilson Avenue, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Stephen R. Kane

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  1. Stephen R. Kane
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Correspondence to Stephen R. Kane .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Planetary Physics, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany

    Jean-Pierre de Vera

  2. The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Kane, S.R. (2013). The Habitable Zone: Basic Concepts. In: de Vera, JP., Seckbach, J. (eds) Habitability of Other Planets and Satellites. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 28. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6546-7_1

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