![[Left]: A concept raytrace showing the IFS, with just the FUV channels shown. The NUV channels take the zero-order from each FUV grating and reflect it towards the IFS fold mirror (on either side) into a similar format NUV IFS (see Haughton et al., 2026 for a depiction of the INFUSE design that this IFS is based on13). The IFS assembly is forward (out of the page) from the MOS at the focal plane, with the IFS fold mirror canted slightly to move the slicer, gratings, and detectors over 0.7 meters from the MOS optical path. [Right]: The slicer-based IFS operates by reflecting portions of the image plane to different gratings, which then focus a spectrogram to a unique portion of the detector. In essence, each reflective slice operates like a long-slit spectrograph, with the slicer geometry separating the multi-slit spectrograph to avoid spectral confusion.-- astro-ph.IM](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/An-Ultraviolet.png?resize=1200%2C563&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.IM] The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is NASA’s next-generation astrophysics platform, delivering transformative capability in the search for life and study of the origins of the universe.
astro-ph.IM
![The on-sky geometry of the Anti-Solar Point (ASP), the ecliptic, and the synthesized beams of the ATA-ASP campaign. See the pilot paper by Sheikh and Hort et al. 2026 for full detail [1]. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/A-Technosignature.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
A Technosignature Survey Of The Anti-Solar Point: The SETI Institute’s Largest-Ever Campaign With The Allen Telescope Array
[astro-ph.IM] The ATA-ASP campaign is a radio technosignature survey of the Anti-Solar Point as a “Schelling point”, using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
An Analytic Error-Budget Model for the Habitable Worlds Observatory Coronagraph: From Optical Disturbances to Flux-Ratio Noise
[astro-ph.IM] A coronagraph stability allocation must protect a planet measurement, not merely satisfy a contrast target. Residual starlight both generates photon noise and interferes with small field perturbations, coupling optical […]
![Schematic of the experimental chamber setup. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Laboratory.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Laboratory Evidence that Methanol-Rich Ice Mantles Lower Methyl Formate Binding Energies
[astro-ph.IM] Complex organic molecules are widely detected in star-forming regions and are important precursors to prebiotic species. Because these molecules are thought to form primarily within icy grain mantles, their […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Community Participation Program
[astro-ph.IM]. In preparation for the operational phase of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA has created the Coronagraph Community Participation Program (CPP) to prepare for and execute Coronagraph Instrument […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Graph Neural Networks For Exoplanet Atmospheres
[astro-ph.IM] Calculating disequilibrium chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres remains a significant computational bottleneck in atmospheric retrievals. The increasing observational precision from facilities such as JWST and the Ariel mission requires including […]
![Left: SCALES optical diagram. Right: Image of the focal plane coronagraph slide mask holder, with flight optics labeled. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Pre-shipment.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
Pre-shipment Optical Characterization Of The SCALES Instrument
[astro-ph.IM] The Slicer Combined with an Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (SCALES) instrument is a 1-5 micron imager and 2-5 micron integral field spectrograph, currently being commissioned on the […]
Posted inApps - Games
pyEDITH: The Coronagraphic Exposure Time Calculator For The Habitable Worlds Observatory
[astro-ph.IM] To support the development of next-generation missions for the search and characterization of habitable planets, high-fidelity tools for astrophysical and instrumental noise simulations are needed.
![Waste-heat temperature–luminosity phase space. Existing midinfrared searches occupy the warm band (orange); cold computational radiators fall in the far-infrared/submillimetre band (green) towards the CMB floor. Grey lines show 345-GHz flux-density contours for a source at 100 pc, from equation (10), which is linear in the fractional waste-heat luminosity 𝑓 on the vertical axis; the figure thus covers partial swarms and complete spheres (𝑓 = 1) alike. Markers indicate a complete 1 L⊙ cold sphere, the level of the archival debris-survey limits (Section 6.1), and the domain of warm mid-infrared searches. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Slysh.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
Slysh Haloes: The Waste Heat Of Cold Computing As A Submillimetre Technosignature
[astro-ph.IM] Searches for Dysonian waste heat have operated almost exclusively in the mid-infrared and are therefore sensitive primarily to technology radiating at 100-600K. We argue that mature, computation-dominated civilisations may […]
![Best-fit model spectra and residuals for the HWO and LIFE datasets (grey and black data points with error bars). Shaded regions show posterior predictive intervals, and the lower panel shows residuals in units of σ. Bottom: Residual between the data and model as measured by 1-σ uncertainty. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/on-the.png?resize=1200%2C715&ssl=1)
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
On The Impact Of Correlated Noise and Spectral Resolution On The Retrieval Analysis Of The Habitable World Observatory
[astro-ph.EP] Finding signs of life elsewhere in the universe is the holy grail of the field of exoplanets. Future space missions such as the Habitable World Observatory (HWO) are under […]