Scientific preparation for the Habitable Worlds Observatory

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on planets orbiting other stars. This is an ambitious project that involves putting into orbit a telescope of large dimensions and scrutinizing power.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is a future NASA mission that promises to follow in the wake of successes of such emblematic space telescopes as Hubble and James Web. The technological challenges it poses have led NASA to design a Great Scientific-Technological Maturation Program that serves to coordinate the efforts that the academic world and industry will have to develop for this purpose.

The first step has been the launch of the START team (Science, Technology and Architecture Review Team) in which more than 1,000 scientists and engineers from all over the planet participate. Several international space agencies have joined this ambitious project, such as the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and also the European Space Agency (ESA).

ESA has appointed as representatives professors Ana Inés Gómez de Castro (Space Astronomy Group, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain), David Mouillet (Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics, France) and Michiel Min (Research Institute Netherlands Space Agency).

The main objective of HWO will be to identify and image at least 25 potentially habitable worlds. Over the next decade, the global astronomical community will focus on identifying the best possible candidates, making an effort unprecedented in the history of Humanity.

Simulated image of a solar system similar to our own and located at a distance of 30 light-years from Earth, observed by a large space telescope operating in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet light bands. That hypothetical solar system depicted includes a planet quite similar to Earth, significantly labeled “Earth 2.0.” (Image: STScI/NASA GSFC)

HWO will use spectroscopic techniques to search for chemical “biosignatures” in the atmospheres of these planets, including gases such as oxygen and methane, that could indicate the presence of life. HWO will also look for evidence of the presence of clouds, oceans and vegetation in these 25 candidates.

In addition, the HWO observatory will include instrumentation to study the chemical evolution of the universe, stellar generations or the formation of planetary systems, with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. HWO will also provide fundamental data to determine the distribution and evolution of large cosmic structures. (Source: UCM)