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The primary scientific objective of this Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) Science Case Development Document (SCDD) is to measure planetary rotation rates of transiting exoplanets to determine the structure, composition, circulation, and…

The high-contrast coronagraph for direct imaging earth-like exoplanet at the visible needs a contrast of 10^(-10) at a small angular separation of 4 lambda/D or less. Here we report our recent laboratory experiment that is close to the…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2014-06-12 C. C. Liu , D. Q. Ren , J. P. Dou , Y. T. Zhu , X. Zhang , G. Zhao , Zh. Wu , R. Chen

A next generation of space-based observatories aims to detect and characterize potentially Earth-like exoplanets around Sun-like stars using reflected light spectroscopy. However, it remains unclear how such direct imaging…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-10-28 Arnaud Salvador , Tyler D. Robinson

Will future direct imaging missions such as NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) be able to understand Earth-sized planets as a population? In this study, we simulate the ability of space-based coronagraphy missions to uncover…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-09-10 Noah W. Tuchow , Christopher C. Stark , Daniel Apai , Martin Schlecker , Kevin K. Hardegree-Ullman

The exoplanetary science through direct imaging and spectroscopy will largely expand with the forthcoming development of new instruments at the VLT (SPHERE), Gemini (GPI), Subaru (HiCIAO), and Palomar (Project 1640) observatories. All these…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-27 P. Martinez , E. Aller-Carpentier , M. Kasper , A. Boccaletti , C. Dorrer , J. Baudrand

The future Habitable Worlds Observatory aims to characterize the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets around solar-type stars. The vector vortex coronagraph (VVC) is a main candidate to reach the required contrast of $10^{-10}$. However, the VVC…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2023-09-06 David S. Doelman , Mireille Ouellet , Axel Potier , Garreth Ruane , Kyle van Gorkom , Sebastiaan Y. Haffert , Ewan S. Douglas , Frans Snik

Imaging exo-Earths is an exciting but challenging task because of the 10^-10 contrast ratio between these planets and their host star at separations narrower than 100 mas. Large segmented aperture space telescopes enable the sensitivity…

High-contrast coronagraphy will be needed to image and characterize faint extra-solar planetary systems. Coronagraphy is a rapidly evolving field, and many enhanced alternatives to the classical Lyot coronagraph have been proposed in the…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-20 D. Mawet , E. Serabyn , K. Liewer , R. Burruss , J. Hickey , D. Shemo

The planned NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) flagship mission aims to image and spectroscopically characterise 25 Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of their stars. However, one giant planet in the habitable zone can ruin your…

The Optimal Optical Coronagraph (OOC) Workshop at the Lorentz Center in September 2017 in Leiden, the Netherlands gathered a diverse group of 25 researchers working on exoplanet instrumentation to stimulate the emergence and sharing of new…

Context: The detection and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets (exoEarths) from space requires exquisite wavefront stability at contrast levels of $10^{-10}$. On segmented telescopes in particular, aberrations induced by cophasing…

One of the primary science goals of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) as defined by the Astro2020 decadal survey is the imaging of the first Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star. A key technology gap towards reaching this goal are…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2024-09-11 Sarah Steiger , Laurent Pueyo , Emiel H. Por , Pin Chen , Rémi Soummer , Raphaël Pourcelot , Iva Laginja , Vanessa P. Bailey

Future large space- or ground-based telescopes will offer the resolution and sensitivity to probe the habitable zone of a large sample of nearby stars for exo-Earth imaging. To this end, such facilities are expected to be equipped with a…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2020-10-12 M. Beaulieu , P. Martinez , L. Abe , C. Gouvret , P. Baudoz , R. Galicher

The search for technosignatures--remotely detectable evidence of extraterrestrial technology--draws upon examples from the recent history of Earth as well as projections of Earth's technosphere. Facilities like the Habitable Worlds…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-12-09 Jacob Haqq-Misra , Ravi Kopparapu , George Profitiliotis

The instrument payload of the future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will span a wide range of wavelengths, including the ultraviolet (UV) region that cannot be easily accessed from the ground (< 350 nm). Along with its primary mission…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2025-07-11 Richard J. Cartwright , Lynnae Quick , Marc Neveu , Tracy M. Becker , Ujjwal Raut , Julie Castillo-Rogez , Kate L. Craft , Geronimo L. Villanueva

The characterization of nearby rocky exoplanets will become feasible with the next generation of telescopes, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the mission concept Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Using an improved model…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-08-06 Giulia Roccetti , Michael F. Sterzik , Julia V. Seidel , Claudia Emde , Mihail Manev , Stefano Bagnulo

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will enable a transformative leap in the direct imaging and characterization of Earth-like exoplanets. For this, NASA is focusing on early investment in technology development prior to mission…

Direct imaging of exoplanets presents a formidable technical challenge owing to the small angular separation and high contrast between exoplanets and their host stars. High Dispersion Coronagraphy (HDC) is a pathway to achieve unprecedented…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-04-05 Ji Wang , Dimitri Mawet , Garreth Ruane , Renyu Hu , Bjorn Benneke

We conducted a number of multi-band coronagraph experiments using a vacuum chamber and a binary-shaped pupil mask which in principle should work at all wavelengths, in the context of the research and development on a coronagraph to observe…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 Kanae Haze , Keigo Enya , Lyu Abe , Takayuki Kotani , Takao Nakagawa , Toshimichi Sato , Tomoyasu Yamamuro