The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be a large ultraviolet/optical/near-infrared space telescope operating at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.
astro-ph.IM
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia Mission, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Exoplanet Atmospheres And Demographics In The 2040s
Direct observations of exoplanets probe the demographics and atmospheric composition of young self-luminous companions, yielding insight into their formation and early evolution history.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report
Astrochemistry: The SPHEREx Satellite Mission
SPHEREx, a NASA explorer satellite launched on 11 March 2025, is carrying out the first all-sky near-infrared spectral survey. The satellite observes in 102 spectral bands from 0.75 to 5.0 […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Transiting Exoplanets As The Immediate Future For Population-level Atmospheric Science
The transit method, during which a planet’s presence is inferred by measuring the reduction in flux as it passes in front of its parent star, is a highly successful exoplanet […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, NASA Astrobiology Program, Status Report
Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO): Living Worlds Community Working Group: The Search for Life on Potentially Habitable Exoplanets
The discovery of a biosphere on another planet would transform how we view ourselves, and our planet Earth, in relation to the rest of the cosmos.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Habitable Worlds Observatory Living Worlds Working Group: Surface Biosignatures on Potentially Habitable Exoplanets
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is the first NASA Astrophysics flagship mission with a key science goal of searching for signs of life on rocky habitable exoplanets beyond our solar […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES 2025) White Paper — Habitable Worlds Observatory Living Worlds Science Cases: Research Gaps and Needs
Executive Summary: The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is the first astrophysics flagship mission with a key cross-divisional astrobiology science goal of searching for signs of life on rocky planets beyond […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
The Future of Evolved Planetary Systems
Understanding the formation, evolution, and chemical diversity of exoplanets are now central areas of astrophysics research. White dwarfs provide a uniquely sensitive laboratory for studying the end stages of planetary-system […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report
Breakthrough Listen Observations Of 3I/ATLAS With The Green Bank Telescope at 1-12 GHz
3I/ATLAS (also designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and, formerly, A11pl3Z) is the third interstellar object (ISO), following 1I/‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, to be discovered during a passage through the Solar System. The […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Space Stations, Status Report
Performance Calibration of the Wavefront Sensor’s EMCCD Detector for the Cool Planets Imaging Coronagraph Aboard CSST
The wavefront sensor (WFS), equipped with an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) detector, is a critical component of the Cool Planets Imaging Coronagraph (CPI-C) on the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST).