When to Use Habitable Zone 3D Explorer - Best Sessions and Limits
Open the Habitable Zone 3D Explorer when you need a quick browser view of how the liquid-water HZ shrinks for dimmer stars (0.95-1.37 AU at L=1, then sqrt(L) scaling) - and skip it when you need a full atmospheric or climate integration.
A five-minute classroom demo
A five-minute classroom demo starts when you open Habitable Zone 3D Explorer, press Sun then M dwarf then TRAPPIST-1-class, and pause so students see the green annulus jump inward while the AU table updates.
Walking the three presets in order
The Habitable Zone 3D Explorer opens on the Sun preset with the green habitable-zone annulus already drawn. From there the sequence is short.
- Open the Habitable Zone 3D Explorer and wait for the star plus green HZ annulus to paint.
- Leave Sun (L=1) selected and read the conservative HZ of 0.95-1.37 AU, with Earth at 1 AU, in the facts panel.
- Click Venus (~0.72 AU) or Mars (~1.52 AU) to see inside-the-band against near-outer-edge status.
- Switch to M dwarf (L=0.1) - the HZ moves to ~0.30-0.43 AU, and TRAPPIST-1-class shows ~0.022-0.032 AU.
- Press Pause orbits to freeze the slow markers, then HZ table to read all three presets at once.
Scale-law literacy in Habitable Zone 3D Explorer
Scale-law literacy in Habitable Zone 3D Explorer stays readable when you keep the facts panel open for 0.95-1.37 AU at L=1 and the sqrt(L) note while switching presets.
Habitable zone key figures
| Star / body | Habitable zone or distance (AU) |
|---|---|
| Sun (L=1) conservative HZ | 0.95-1.37 AU |
| Earth | 1 AU |
| Venus | ~0.72 AU |
| Mars | ~1.52 AU |
| M dwarf (L=0.1) HZ | ~0.30 - 0.43 AU |
| TRAPPIST-1-class HZ | ~0.022 - 0.032 AU |
Habitable Zone 3D compared with the printed sources
| Option | Strength | Access | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Habitable Zone 3D (this guide) | Three star presets, HZ annulus, and the sqrt(L) table | Free, in browser | No atmosphere model, compressed layout |
| NASA exoplanet fact sheets | Published HZ edges per spectral type | Free web | No interactive 3D annulus |
| Textbook astrophysics chapter | HZ formulas and energy balance | Book / courseware | No click-to-compare star presets |
Sessions Habitable Zone 3D Explorer does not fit
Sessions Habitable Zone 3D Explorer does not fit are greenhouse atmospheres, per-star Kopparapu climate runs, or transit light-curve labs. Use Exoplanet Transit 3D for detection geometry or Star Lifecycle 3D for luminosity evolution.
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