Zone Visibility and Luminosity of N-Zone Exoplanets: A Computational Approach

Exoplanets are the foremost cosmological candidates for discovery of extraterrestrial life. Part of their characterization process includes calculation of their luminosity due to blackbody temperature. However, their luminosity is also partially determined by their visibility to Earth as they orbit their host star(s). Existing orbital models commonly employ a dayside-nightside convention for visibility determination, limiting calculations to two zones (N=2) of an exoplanet, one zone each for the dayside and nightside. The N-Zone model developed during this research splits a planet into any number of zones from user input, and the luminosity output varies as zones of different temperature become more or less visible to Earth. This computational model exploits this advantage to grant exoplanet scientists a greater degree of precision in luminosity calculations as they characterize exoplanets. Each zone (n) of an N-Zone exoplanet acts as an independent blackbody. The N-Zone program employs visibility logic and luminosity equations that will apply to exoplanets of varying orbital constraints. The N-Zone computational model outputs visibility and luminosity plots for N ≥ 2 exoplanets and may be used by exoplanet scientists to characterize temperature distributions of exoplanets.