Habitable Zones

Barrie Jones, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at The Open University in the UK, has devised a preliminary algorithm for determining the habitable zone (HZ) around a star. The HZ would vary depending upon the size of the system's star. More work needs to be done, for instance if the question needs to be raised that if

there giant planets too close to the habitable zone, so that an Earth-sized planet would be thrown out into interstellar space by the gravity of the giants?

Also, what would be the parameters of an HZ around a binary or trinary star systems? Right now, there is not enough data, nor enough computer modeling done, to answer those kinds of questions.



Reference:

"Modeling Other Earths." Astrobiology Magazine. 1 February 2007. 22 November 2007. <http://www.astrobio.net/news/article2225.html>.