![]() While technically still within the habitable zone, they would have effectively been sterilized by the tidal heating process. They would then be more difficult to distinguish from other planets in those solar systems which may still be habitable. What’s problematic is that these planets could subsequently actually have their orbits altered by the tidal heating so that they are no longer affected by it. So even though they are within the habitable zone, they would lack oceans or lakes. The planets would then be subjected to greater tidal heating from the star, enough perhaps to cause them to lose all of their water, similar to what is thought to have happened with Venus in our own solar system (ie. This effect could cause planets to become “tidal Venuses.” In these cases, the planets orbit smaller, dimmer stars, where in order to be in that star’s habitable zone, they would need to orbit much closer in to the star than Earth does with the Sun. We figured out you can actually limit a planet’s habitability with an energy source other than starlight.” Simple enough, but tidal heating adds a new wrinkle to the equation. According to Rory Barnes, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist at the University of Washington, “This has fundamentally changed the concept of a habitable zone. The closer a planet is to its star, the hotter it will be, and the farther out it is, the cooler it will be. The habitability factor is determined primarily by the amount of heat coming from the planet’s star.
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