Calculating the habitable zones of multiple star systems with a new interactive Web site

Journal Article · Mon Feb 10 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/782/1/26· OSTI ID:22348060

Müller, Tobias W. A.; Haghighipour, Nader ^[1]

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1. Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, D-72076 Tübingen (Germany)

We have developed a comprehensive methodology and an interactive Web site for calculating the habitable zone (HZ) of multiple star systems. Using the concept of spectral weight factor, as introduced in our previous studies of the calculations of HZ in and around binary star systems, we calculate the contribution of each star (based on its spectral energy distribution) to the total flux received at the top of the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet, and use the models of the HZ of the Sun to determine the boundaries of the HZ in multiple star systems. Our interactive Web site for carrying out these calculations is publicly available at http://astro.twam.info/hz. We discuss the details of our methodology and present its application to some of the multiple star systems detected by the Kepler space telescope. We also present the instructions for using our interactive Web site, and demonstrate its capabilities by calculating the HZ for two interesting analytical solutions of the three-body problem.

• OSTI ID: 22348060
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 782, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
ATMOSPHERES
BINARY STARS
ENERGY SPECTRA
PLANETS
SUN
TELESCOPES
THREE-BODY PROBLEM