Ravi Kopparapu (Penn State) - Habitable Zones and the Frequency of Potential Habitable Planets in Extrasolar Planetary Systems

Identifying terrestrial planets in the habitable zones (HZs) of other stars is one of the primary goals of ongoing exoplanet surveys and proposed space-based flagship missions. In this talk, I will discuss about our recent results on the new estimates of HZs around Main-sequence stars with Earth and super-Earth planets. According to our new model, a conservative estimate of the inner (moist greenhouse) and outer (maximum greenhouse) HZ limits for our Solar System are at 0.99 AU and 1.67 AU, respectively, suggesting that the present Earth lies near the inner edge. Our model does not include the radiative effects of clouds; thus, the actual HZ boundaries may be broader than our estimates. Applying the new HZ limits to extrasolar planetary systems in NASA's "Kepler" data, we find that potentially habitable planets around M-dwarfs are more common than previously reported, and the frequency of Earth-size planets around G & K stars may be ~ 10-15%.