rsnemmen / hz-calculator

Habitable zone calculator

Habitable zone calculator

Do you want to compute the habitable zone boundaries around a star? Here is how:

Input:

• Stellar effective temperature in Kelvin
• Luminosity in solar luminosities.

Output: inner and outer radii defining the habitable zone boundaries in astronomical units.

Files included

• hzcalc.py is the Python 3x fixed version of the habitable zone calculator developed by Ravi Kumar Kopparapu and John Armstrong.
• hzinput.py is the interactive version, demonstrated above.

Credits

• Ravi Kumar Kopparapu developed the original fortran code in April 2014 (cf. references below)
• John Armstrong translated to python code in June 2014
• Rodrigo Nemmen made small improvements to the python code on Jan. 2021

References

• Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: New Estimates. Kopparapu, R. K., et al. 2013, Astrophysical Journal, 765, 131
• Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: Dependence on Planetary Mass. Kopparapu, R. K., et al. 2014, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 787, L29