Planetary equilibrium temperature refers to the theoretical temperature that a planet would achieve when the energy it receives from its star (such as the Sun) is balanced by the energy it radiates back into space. This concept is crucial in understanding a planet's climate and potential habitability.
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For a planet of Bond albedo orbiting a blackbody star of radius and temperature , complete global redistribution and negligible internal heat giveUniform dayside-only reradiation replaces by . The planetary equilibrium temperature describes absorbed stellar power; including an intrinsic cooling flux gives a total effective temperature , distinct from . Neither quantity is necessarily the greenhouse-warmed surface temperature.