From the January 2010 issue

Could our solar system’s habitable zone hold two earthlike planets?

John Lockwood, Washington, D.C.
By | Published: January 25, 2010 | Last updated on May 18, 2023

Earthlike planet
This artist rendition shows earthlike planets.
Francis Reddy

Computer simulations of gravitational interactions between planets show that two Earth-mass planets would be stable if placed at both ends of the HZ’s 0.95 AU to 1.4 AU range, as long as their orbits were almost circular.