[NASA]. The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is a large-aperture ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared observatory concept recommended by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine decadal survey, “Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and […]
astronomy
![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 inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Stellar Flares Rather Than High Tint As Possible Cause For the Missing Methane In Young Exoplanets: The Case Study of V1298-Tau b
[astro-ph.EP] Recent observations of V1298-Tau b, a warm sub-Neptune (R=9.85±0.3R⊕, M=13.1±5.3,M⊕, Teq=670K) orbiting a young (10-30Myr) K star, show depleted methane and surprising abundances of CO2 in its atmosphere.
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.
![Bifurcated best-fit solutions. The noisy generated data is shown with gray error bars. The true spectrum of Earth is in black, while the Earth-like solution and thick- -atmosphere solution are shown in blue and orange, respectively. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Impacts.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Impacts Of Correlated Noise On Retrievals Of Exo-Earth Atmospheres
[astro-ph.EP] The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to accomplish high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of true Earth analogs for the first time. However, high-contrast spectroscopy with HWO may be limited by […]
![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 […]
AbGradE Lectures: Isabel Santos de Sousa and Guillaume Leseigneur
Thursday, 3 September Natural History Museum of Neuchâtel, Switzerland Are you curious about the mysteries of the Universe? Have you ever wondered how did life on Earth even began? What […]
![Figure showing the structure of pure carbon planets ranging from 0.1 to 20 Earth masses with a surface temperature of 300K. Color bar indicates density in g/cm3 . -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Modeling-Carbon.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Modeling Carbon-Based Planets with MAGRATHEA
[astro-ph.EP] A planet’s interior structure not only influences its habitability, but it also provides information about the planet’s formation and history.
Posted inAstrobiology (general)
The SETI Institute And ETH Zurich Join Forces To Search For The Origin Of Life
[SETI Institute]. The question of how life originated and whether it exists elsewhere in the universe has fascinated humanity for centuries. Now, ETH Zurich and the SETI Institute in California […]
![Overview of the optical design of the testbed, which features an AO module, a coronagraph module, and ample space for science cameras and visitor experiments. Abbreviations: CDM: Coronagraphic DM, DM: Deformable Mirror, FM: Fold Mirror, (F/L)LOWFS: focal-plane/Lyot-stop low-order wavefront sensor, OAP: Off-Axis Parabola, PSM: PupilSteering Mirror, TS: Turbulence Simulator -[astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/NEXT.png?resize=1200%2C714&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
NEXT: The Netherlands EXoplanet Testbed I. Goals And opto-mechanical Design
[astro-ph.IM] We report on the goals, design, and ongoing development of the Netherlands EXoplanet Testbed (NEXT), a high-contrast imaging testbed under construction in Leiden.