snow line

See also: snowline

English

Alternative forms

• snow-line

Noun

snow line (plural snow lines)

1. The altitude, in a mountainous region, above which the ground is covered with snow, at any particular time.

   Synonym: snow level

   Coordinate term: tree line

2. (astrophysics) The inner limit where volatile molecules can remain frozen in the zone around a star.

   Synonym: frost line

   • 2018 April 26, Alexandra Witze, “Earth May Have Been Formed by a Bunch of Tiny Space Pebbles”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     Chris Ormel, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam, and his colleagues recently calculated that protoplanets began to form at the snow line around the star, then grew quickly by accreting pebbles.

3. (astrophysics, specifically) The limit for water remaining solid instead of evaporating away under solar radiation.

Derived terms

(astronomy):

• water snow line
• carbon monoxide snow line

See also

(astronomy):

• habitable zone
• Venus zone

Further reading

• frost line (astrophysics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia