The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to enable the detection and characterization of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars to search for possible signs of life elsewhere in our universe.
coronagraph
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
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.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Exploring Exoplanets with Interferometry
(Extract from the Executive Summary) Humanity stands at the threshold of answering one of its most profound questions: Does life exist beyond Earth?
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
PEEPSS: Photonic-Enabled ExoPlanet Spectroscopic Sensor for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
The next few years will be critical for technology development for Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) in its mission to search for and characterize extrasolar planets.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Direct Imaging Constraints on Binary Planets and Exomoons around Epsilon Indi A b
Epsilon Indi A b is a directly imaged ∼6MJup exoplanet orbiting a nearby (3.6 pc) K-dwarf at ∼30 AU.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Continuing To Advance European High Contrast Imaging Research And Development Towards HWO And LIFE
The European Research and Development for Space based High Contrast Imaging II Workshop, held at MPIA in May 2025, advanced Europe strategic coordination in support of future exoplanet imaging missions […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release
Designing Lightweight Optics To Detect Signs Of Life Beyond Our Solar System
UC Santa Barbara doctoral candidate in physics, Skyler Palatnick, PhD ’26, has been named to Heising-Simons Foundation’s Science program’s new class of 51 Pegasi b Fellows, which he will perform […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Optical Vortex Phase Masks for the Detection of Habitable Worlds
A team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help enable the many orders of magnitude of starlight suppression needed for future space observatories to […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
The Lazuli Space Observatory: Architecture & Capabilities
Editor’s note: The Lazuli Space Observatory is part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System, the proposed Lazuli Space Observatory is a 3-meter telescope designed to capture fast-changing cosmic […]
![Earth’s spectrum over time (right panel), reproduced from [11]. The biosignature gases present change dramatically from epoch to epoch (left panel), producing significantly different spectra. The simultaneous detection of O2 at 0.8 µm demonstrates the presence of life in the modern Earth spectrum shown in the bottom right panel, but for habitable planets without much evidence of oxygenic biosignatures (e.g. Proterozoic and Archean Earth), coverage beyond 0.8 µm will be key to capture H2O, and CH4 features. -- astro-ph.IM](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/The-Key-to-Unlocking-Exoplanet.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
The Key To Unlocking Exoplanet Biosignatures: A UK-led IR Spectrograph for the Habitable Worlds Observatory Coronagraph
The detection of life on rocky exoplanets in the habitable zones of nearby stars would be a paradigm-shifting advance, and it is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our […]