Home▸Space & Astronomy▸Runaway Greenhouse Limit

Runaway Greenhouse Limit

Interactive 3D simulation of the runaway greenhouse limit: tune a planet's orbital distance, host-star luminosity, albedo and CO2 level and watch whether outgoing longwave radiation can ever balance absorbed starlight, or whether the ocean boils away.

Space & Astronomy3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

This simulator models the physical inner edge of a star's habitable zone: the runaway greenhouse limit set by the Simpson–Nakajima saturation of outgoing longwave radiation. Dial in a planet's orbital distance, its host star's luminosity, surface albedo and greenhouse-gas loading, and watch whether the planet's thermal emission can still climb fast enough to balance the starlight it absorbs. Below the limit the ocean world settles at a stable equilibrium temperature; push the absorbed flux past the OLR ceiling and no equilibrium exists at all — the oceans boil away into a thick steam atmosphere, exactly the mechanism thought to have doomed early Venus.

⚙ Under the hood

Tune a planet's orbital distance, star luminosity, albedo and CO2 loading and watch whether outgoing longwave radiation can balance absorbed starlight, or whether it saturates at the Simpson–Nakajima limit and the ocean boils away.

exoplanetshabitable zonegreenhouse effectclimate physicsastrobiology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install