Scientists have developed a habitability index to rank exoplanets and their potential for increasing our knowledge of life in the universe, described in the forthcoming research paper, “Comparative Habitability of Transiting Exoplanets,” to be published in the Astrophysics Journal. The ranking system created at the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) will help narrow down which exoplanet candidates in a habitability zone present the best transit data and planetary properties for future observation.
A press release was published by UW Today.
The study was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute.