HABITABILITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does habitability mean? 

• HABITABILITY (noun)
  The noun HABITABILITY has 1 sense:

1. suitability for living in or on

  Familiarity information: HABITABILITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HABITABILITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Suitability for living in or on

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

habitability; habitableness

Hypernyms ("habitability" is a kind of...):

fitness; fittingness (the quality of being suitable)

Derivation:

habitable (fit for habitation)

 Context examples 

“Given that water is a key ingredient to our notion of habitability on Earth, it is important to know how much water can be found in planetary systems beyond our own,” said Madhusudhan.

(Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets, University of Cambridge)

The study helps to circumscribe the limits of habitability and demands caution when interpreting morphological biosignatures on Earth and beyond.

(Place discovered on earth with no microbial life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The question of the planets' atmospheres is also important for understanding whether liquid water could be present on these surfaces — an essential ingredient for habitability.

(New Clues to TRAPPIST-1 Planet Compositions, Atmospheres, NASA)

These results provide the basis for future studies to determine the habitability of Proxima b.

(Planet Orbiting Nearest Star Could be Habitable, NASA)

It is unclear what this older age means for the planets' habitability.

(TRAPPIST-1 is Older Than Our Solar System, NASA/JPL)

By narrowing the conditions for habitability, they hope to refine the search for potentially habitable planets.

(Even 'Goldilocks' exoplanets need a well-behaved star, National Science Foundation )

Webb also will analyze a planet’s temperature and surface pressure – key factors in assessing its habitability.

(Hubble Telescope Makes First Atmospheric Study of Earth-Sized Exoplanets, NASA)

This freezing process would have important implications for the habitability of Titan's ocean, as it would limit the ability of materials to exchange between the surface and the ocean.

(Ocean on Saturn moon could be as salty as the Dead Sea, NASA)

The realization that a vast aquatic system of rivers and lakes exists beneath the ice in Antarctica has spurred investigations to examine the effect on ice-sheet stability and the habitability of environments at the bed.

(800 meters beneath Antarctic ice sheet, subglacial lake holds viable microbial ecosystems, NSF)

Meanwhile, the presence of liquid water on a planet, which is often used as a habitability criterion, doesn’t necessarily means that it has life.

(Place discovered on earth with no microbial life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)