The Habitable Worlds Observatory: Mission Overview and the Path to Discovery

The discovery of thousands of planets orbiting stars beyond the solar system has fundamentally shifted our view of Earth’s place in the Universe, has captivated the public imagination, and has transformed research priorities in astrophysics. Those accomplishments have put us in a position to ask the fundamental question “Are we alone?” and on a path to developing the technical tools to answer this question. The US 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2020) has recommended the development of a space observatory to investigate the frequency of habitable exoplanets, search them for signs of global biospheres, and perform a wide range of transformative astrophysics.

 NASA has dubbed that telescope the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). In this talk, I will present the recommendation for the development of HWO based on Astro2020’s key science goals in exoplanets and astrophysics. I will discuss NASA’s efforts for maturation of the HWO concept; highlighting how this process builds on the LUVOIR and Habex mission studies, key challenges, current activities, and opportunities for astronomers, earth scientists, heliophysicists, and planetary scientists to get involved in the mission development. I will focus on the near-term technology needs for HWO’s notional UV imaging and spectroscopy instrumentation, and opportunities to leverage LASP’s strengths in these areas.