Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhaedas
Wikipedia's definition (and likely others) is based on 1 AU from a star with the sun's luminosity. The zone's width is from .95 to 1.37 of this mean average.
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1 is not the mean or average of .95 and 1.37. The Wikipedia editors are stuck on the notion that Earth's current orbit must be at the center of the Sun's habitable zone, which causes them to use some misleading language.
The 0.95 to 1.37 comes from planetary climate models that suggest an Earth-like planet would surely experience a runaway greenhouse if it were closer than 0.95 AU and a CO
2 freeze-out if it were further than 1.37 AU.