Starshade Archives - Astrobiology

Artist’s conception of a starshade (a disk surrounded by “petals” at the top left) blocking starlight from a star so that a space-based telescope (at right) can image the two planets. Credit: NASA Exo-S Study Team

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release

New Ultra-Black Coating Could Enable the Search for Life on Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2026May 14, 2026

What is a Starshade and What Could it Do?

Artist concept highlighting the novel approach proposed by the 2025 NIAC awarded selection of Inflatable Starshade for Earthlike Exoplanets concept. -- NASA/John Mather -- NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

The Observation Of Earth-like Exoplanets With Ground-based Telescopes And A Shared Orbiting Starshade

by Keith CowingMarch 6, 2026March 6, 2026

Imaging Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars from the ground is challenging and requires substantial advances in techniques. This Perspective presents and provides the predicted performance of a hybrid space–ground approach […]

An artist’s depiction of the fully-deployed starshade spacecraft (left) next to the spacetelescope it supports. The two spacecraft must fly in almost perfect alignment to allow thetelescope to stay in the shadow created by the starshade. -- NASA (source)

Analog Studies, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report

Maximizing The Sensitivity Of ELT To Habitable Worlds With A Space-based Starshade

by Keith CowingDecember 22, 2025December 22, 2025

The ELT will provide groundbreaking science across a wide range of areas, including small habitable-zone exoplanets; however, true Earth analogs in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars are generally beyond […]

Suppression in logarithmic units (diffraction intensity at the telescope aperture ∥f ∥ P ∥ 2 ) is shown for the HWO 60 m starshade with 16 petals at a wavelength of 500 nm, with a spatial sampling of ∆P = 2 cm, NP = 6000. The central dark shadow is masked by the telescope and produces the on-axis stellar PSF. The dark shadow must therefore be as large as the aperture. To maintain the dark shadow (contrast), the Fresnel number should remain constant f = R2 ss λz ∼ 10 − 20. This can be maintained at wavelengths outside of the band by changing the lateral flight distance of the starshade z. The dark shadow is approximately the size of the starshade in diameter (60m). -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Efficient Exoplanet Imaging Simulations of the Habitable Worlds Observatory

by Keith CowingNovember 20, 2025November 20, 2025

Direct imaging simulations of starshades and other proposed mission concepts are needed to characterize planet detection performance and inform mission design trades.

Example of ICA-based background subtraction results for “R05 v2 rez2 snr3 1em10” scenario from the Quartus Engineering analysis. A 2 × 3 set of subplots is shown where rows 1 and 2 correspond to passbands [425- 522] and [615-800] respectively. Columns 1, 2, and 3 of the plot correspond to the original image, the estimated background, and the residual, respectively. -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Citizen Science / Open Science, Education and Outreach, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Starshade Exoplanet Data Challenge: What We Learned

by Keith CowingOctober 15, 2024October 15, 2024

Starshade is one of the technologies that will enable the observation and characterization of small planets around nearby stars through direct imaging.

Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE) -- NIAC

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Status Report

NIAC Phase 1 Proposal: Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE)

by Keith CowingAugust 17, 2024August 17, 2024

We propose the first hybrid observatory, combining a 100 m diameter starshade in space with a telescope on the ground. The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE) would convert the […]

doppler

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Doppler Constraints on Planetary Companions to Nearby Sun-like Stars: An Archival Radial Velocity Survey of Southern Targets for Proposed NASA Direct Imaging Missions

by Keith CowingFebruary 22, 2023February 22, 2023

Directly imaging temperate rocky planets orbiting nearby, Sun-like stars with a 6-m-class IR/O/UV space telescope, recently dubbed the Habitable Worlds Observatory, is a high priority goal of the Astro2020 Decadal […]

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release

Transit Detection of a "Starshade" at the Inner Lagrange Point of an Exoplanet

by Keith CowingMay 3, 2017

All water-covered rocky planets in the inner habitable zones of solar-type stars will inevitably experience a catastrophic runaway climate due to increasing stellar luminosity and limits to outgoing infrared radiation […]