Everyone knows that stuff like Co2 warms the atmosphere (shocking I know). But I recently heard that if there was none of the natural Co2 we already have, the average temperatures on earth would be around -15 degrees Celsius (could be wrong about that number). I would assume that this is not ideal for life, and if this is the case, is Earth really in the habitable zone, or is it just habitable because of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that make it warmer? Is the variablity of the amount of greenhouse gases accounted for when calculating how big the band of the zone of habitability?
Edit: Got my answer, thanks everybody!
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“The habitable zone” is just a broad description for the rough distance from a star that planet should be to *have a chance* of being habitable. It can still be a completely hellish place quite easily. Mars isn’t habitable, but it is in the habitable zone, for example. And as you say, if Earth’s atmosphere were different it also wouldn’t be habitable, even though it is in what we call the habitable zone. It’s really just that within this zone *it is possible* for a planet to be habitable.
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