Abstract
An important property of exoplanetary systems is the extent of the Habitable
Zone (HZ), defined as that region where water can exist in a liquid state on
the surface of a planet with sufficient atmospheric pressure. Both ground and
space-based observations have revealed a plethora of confirmed exoplanets and
exoplanetary candidates, most notably from the Kepler mission using the transit
detection technique. Many of these detected planets lie within the predicted HZ
of their host star. However, as is the case with the derived properties of the
planets themselves, the HZ boundaries depend on how well we understand the host
star. Here we quantify the uncertainties of HZ boundaries on the parameter
uncertainties of the host star. We examine the distribution of stellar
parameter uncertainties from confirmed exoplanet hosts and Kepler candidate
hosts and translate these into HZ boundary uncertainties. We apply this to
several known systems with a HZ planet to determine the uncertainty in their HZ
status.
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