Precise stellar ages (uncertainties ≲1 Gyr, or ∼20% at solar age) are required to discern evolutionary trends in atmospheric biosignatures of terrestrial habitable zone exoplanets surveyed by the Habitable Worlds […]
Habitable Worlds Observatory
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release
New Ultra-Black Coating Could Enable the Search for Life on Exoplanets
What is a Starshade and What Could it Do?
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Mineral False Positives in the Search for Exoplanet Surface Biosignatures
In the search for life in the cosmos, biopigments on exoplanet surfaces are a critical target.
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Status Report
The Catastrophic Consequences of Agnosticism for Life Searches and a Possible Workaroun
Planned and ongoing searches for life, both biological and technological, confront an epistemic barrier concerning false positives – namely, that we don’t know what we don’t know.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
The Effect Of Spectral Resolution On Biosignature Detection Via Reflected Light Observations Of The Earth Through Time
NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will search for biosignatures on Earth-like exoplanets using reflected light spectroscopy.
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, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Understanding HWO’s Field of Regard and Characterization Requirement Trade Space with a Dynamic Observation Scheduling Algorithm
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to image and characterize at least 25 ExoEarth candidates (EECs). Achieving this goal requires a detailed understanding of the observatory’s design trade space, including […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Toward Inferring the Surface Fluxes of Biosignature Gases on Rocky Exoplanets from Telescope Spectra
The James Webb Space Telescope and the future Habitable Worlds Observatory aim to discover exoplanet atmospheric spectra that detect life. Currently, most existing spectral “retrieval” algorithms focus on inferring the […]
Posted inStatus 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 […]