Japan’s Possible Contributions For Coronagraph Of The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)
In this paper, we describe Japan’s possible contributions for coronagraph of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) based on our independent study.
We are considering to contribute to the HOW coronagraph by science and hardware, based on Japan’s experience for the SPICA coronagraph instrument, contributions to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and SCExAO for the Subaru telescope. Currently, hardware contributions of various scales, from large-scale to small components, are considered.
As an example of the large-scale hardware case, the optical and mechanical layout of the entire infrared coronagraph is presented. Several individual high-contrast technologies are also briefly introduced, for which research is ongoing in Japan. In discussions, it is pointed out that both the inner working angle (IWA) and sensitivity are particularly critical for the NIR coronagraph.
In this situation, dedicated observations of a small number of targets close to the solar system can be one of key science program in this situation, and designing consolidating science objectives, requirements, observation targets, and survey plans is important. It is essential to push the development of advanced coronagraphs that provide small IWAs.
On the other hand, it is also necessary to prepare solutions that adopt more robust coronagraphs in parallel. How to coexist visible and NIR coronagraphs within constraints of volume, mass, budget etc. is an important issue. The international sharing for the coronagraph development should be carefully decided by international agreement.
Although all of our studies may not be realized in contributions to the first generation of HWO instruments, we are considering Japan’s multigenerational participation in the HWO to maximize outcomes of the HWO.
Keigo Enya, Kenta Yoneta, Naoshi Murakami, Jun Nishikawa, Satoshi Itoh, Taro Matsuo, Reiki Kojima, Takayuki Kotani, Olivier Guyon, Takahiro Sumi, Satoshi Miyazaki, Toru Yamada, Aoi Takahashi, Hajime Kawahara, Shota Miyazaki, Iona Kondo, Nana Higashio, Noriko Yamasaki, Masayuki Kuzuhara, Motohide Tamura, Masahiro Ikoma, Norio Narita, Julien Lozi
Comments: The main body of this manuscript, excluding the appendix, has been submitted to the HWO2025 proceedings
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2606.13440 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2606.13440v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.13440
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Submission history
From: Keigo Enya
[v1] Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:03:28 UTC (1,116 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.13440
Astrobiology
