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Goldilocks zone love

Goldilocks zone

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun astronomy The zone around a star where a planet could experience temperatures like those on Earth, allowing for the possible existence of liquid water and of life.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, in which the young girl Goldilocks enters the bears' house during their absence, tastes their bowls of porridge, and finds one too hot, another too cold, but the last one just right.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

So called because, like the third of the three bowls of porridge in the fairy tale Goldilocks, it is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. habitable zone

relateds (1)

relateds

  1. Goldilocks planet

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  • dinkum commented on the word Goldilocks zone

    WORD: Goldilocks zone
      
    DEFINITION: ' In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ) (or simply the habitable zone), colloquially known as the <b>Goldilocks zone</b>, is the region around a star within which planetary-mass objects with sufficient atmospheric pressure can support liquid water at their surfaces. '
      
    -- Wikipedia << http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone  >>
    See also: Goldilocks planet
    << http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldilocks_planet >>
      
    EXAMPLES: 

        
    <b>(1)</b> ' The figure of Goldilocks made its way into extraterrestrial speculations as early as 1935. That year, the Los Angeles Times reported that astronomers at Mount Wilson Observatory had "turned Goldilocks" to determine how many planets might be habitable. "With identical curiosity and startlingly similar conclusions, the astronomer now is sampling the stars for conditions to support life."

    ' The "<b>Goldilocks problem</b>," as it would come to be known, considers why Mars, Venus and Earth, while formed at the same time and from similar raw materials, have such different climates—with only Earth being "just right."

    ' To support life, a "<b>Goldilocks planet"</b> must be in the habitable "<b>Goldilocks zone</b>" around its sun. The latest study, led by astronomy professor Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, estimates as many as 40 billion Goldilocks planets. '
      
    --- BEN ZIMMER. " How Goldilocks Moved to Space and the World of Economists."
    <b><i>The Wall Street Journal</i></b>, Nov. 15, 2013 (Weekend print edition, 11/16-17/2013)
    << http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304243904579198083961140464 >>

    <b>(2)</b> ' Using data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, astronomers now estimate that there may be 40 billion - with a B - Earth-sized planets parked in the "Goldilocks zone" of solar systems in our galaxy.

    ' The area named for the girl in the fairy tale is neither too close nor too far from a sun, making liquid water possible and planets habitable. In our solar system, that's roughly the orbital band between Mars and Venus. '

    -- The Virginian-Pilot. "We might have distant neighbors." November 8, 2013.
    <<  http://hamptonroads.com/2013/11/we-might-have-distant-neighbors 
    >>




    November 12, 2013

  • vendingmachine commented on the word Goldilocks zone

    The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher.

    For decades, it has been thought that the key factor in determining whether a planet can support life was its distance from its sun. In our solar system, for instance, Venus is too close to the sun and Mars is too far, but Earth is just right. That distance is what scientists refer to as the "habitable zone," or the "Goldilocks zone."--Science Daily, August 19, 2016

    August 24, 2016