- 31 Mar, 2021
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Habitable Zones
Habitable Zones – Student Guide (These lab instructions have been adapted from an NAAP Lab from the University of Nebraska.)Exercises Please read through the background pages entitled Life in the Universe, Circumstellar Habitable Zones, and The Galactic Habitable Zone before working on the exercises using simulations below. Circumstellar Zones Open the Circumstellar Zone Simulator. There are four main panels: •The top panel simulation displays a visualization of a star and its planets looking down onto the plane of the solar system. The habitable zone is displayed for the particular star being simulated. One can click and drag either toward the star or away from it to change the scale being displayed.
•The General Settings panel provides two options for creating standards of reference in the top panel.
•The Star and Planets Setting and Properties panel allows one to display our own star system, several known star systems, or create your own star-planet combinations in the none-selected mode.
•The Timeline and Simulation Controls allows one to demonstrate the time evolution of the star system being displayed. The simulation begins with our Sun being displayed as it was when it formed and a terrestrial planet at the position of Earth. One can change the planet’s distance from the Sun either by dragging it or using the planet distance slider. Note that the appearance of the planet changes depending upon its location. It appears quite earth-like when inside the circumstellar habitable zone (hereafter CHZ). However, when it is dragged inside of the CHZ, it becomes “desert-like,” while outside it appears “frozen.”