Redefining "Habitable": A Necessity?

With over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets, the current definition of habitable is showing its age. Researchers propose a new and innovative method to assess habitability and inhabitation, which is focused on future missions and telescopes. The team's model combines an Earth-based ecosystem and planetary modelling to identify biotic activity and quantify its effect on habitability for Enceladus, primitive Earth and primitive Mars, as well as for a population of Earth-like planets around G-type stars. Holistic methods like the one outlined in this study will be necessary to make sense of all of LUVOIR's data.