Abstract EANA2026-88

Recent theoretical and observational advancements suggest that planetary habitability depends crucially on the water content of the planet. It has been demonstrated that liquid water may exist on planets beyond the conservative Habitable Zone, defined as the circumstellar region within which a planet can maintain liquid water on its surface.

This work presents a novel classification of habitability models, depending not only on the stellar incident flux but also on the planetary water content. In addition to the water content on and near the planetary surface, we examine factors of the planetary atmosphere and the host star that control the potential for liquid water and life in diverse astrophysical environments, including the planet´s heat circulation, greenhouse effect, and geothermal heat.

We suggest detecting locked, water-rich planets by their enhanced albedo from clouds on their permanent day side. We demonstrate that this method can be used by the Roman telescope for Super Earth and Sub-Neptune planets within tens to hundreds of parsecs.