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An important evolutionary pathway for planetary atmospheres is escape to space, which has been studied on Earth and Mars for several decades and more recently in exoplanets. A particularly important regime is the hydrodynamic escape,…
The goal of the Orbiting Wide-field Light-collectors (OWL) mission is to study the origin and physics of the highest energy particles known in nature, the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The OWL mission consists of telescopes with UV…
Exoplanet science is booming. In 20 years our knowledge has expanded considerably, from the first discovery of a Hot Jupiter, to the detection of a large population of Neptunes and super-Earths, to the first steps toward the…
Neutrino telescopes offer an alternative way to explore the Universe. Several projects are in operation or under construction. A detector under the ocean is very promising because of the very accurate angular resolution that it provides.…
Integral field spectroscopy allows for spectral mapping of extended sources in a time efficient manner. An integral field unit (IFU) in the ultraviolet on Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could be used to quickly map extended objects like…
Few scientific discoveries have captured the public imagination like the explosion of exoplanetary science during the past two decades. This work has fundamentally changed our picture of Earth's place in the Universe and led NASA to make…
UVMag is a medium-size space telescope equipped with a high-resolution spectropolarimeter working in the UV and visible domains. It will be proposed to ESA for a future M mission. It will allow scientists to study all types of stars as well…
One of the promising methods to search for life on extra-solar planets (exoplanets) is to detect life's signatures in their atmospheres. Spectra of exoplanet atmospheres at the modest resolution needed to search for oxygen, carbon dioxide,…
The polarimetry of the light scattered by planetary surfaces is a powerful tool to provide constraints on their microstructure. To improve the interpretation of polarimetric data from icy surfaces, we have developed the POLarimeter for ICE…
Understanding the Universe's origins and evolution remains one of the most fundamental challenges in modern cosmology. This white paper explores three key science priorities in this field: unravelling the physics of cosmic inflation,…
Liquid water oceans are at the center of our search for life on exoplanets because water is a strict requirement for life as we know it. However, oceans are dynamic habitats---and some oceans may be better hosts for life than others. In…
We study the prospects for life on planets with subsurface oceans, and find that a wide range of planets can exist in diverse habitats with ice envelopes of moderate thickness. We quantify the energy sources available to these worlds, the…
The circular polarization of light that planets reflect is often neglected because it is very small compared to the linear polarization. It could, however, provide information on a planet's atmosphere and surface, and on the presence of…
This paper discusses the science case for a sensitive spectro-polarimetric survey of the microwave sky. Such a survey would provide a tomographic and dynamic census of the three-dimensional distribution of hot gas, velocity flows, early…
The National Academy Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) made a recommendation to study a large/medium-class dedicated space telescope for planetary science, going beyond the Discovery-class dedicated planetary space…
Context. Clouds have already been detected in exoplanetary atmospheres. They play crucial roles in a planet's atmosphere and climate and can also create ambiguities in the determination of atmospheric parameters such as trace gas mixing…
Giant planets in the habitable zone may host exomoons with conditions conducive to life. In this paper we describe a method by which the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could detect such moons: broadband reflected-light lunar eclipses…
This paper reports on the current status of the World Space Observatory WSO-UV, a space mission for UV astronomy, planned for launch at the beginning of next decade. It is based on a 1.7 m telescope, with focal plane instruments including…
As the only known habitable (and inhabited) planet in the universe, Earth informs our search for life elsewhere. Future telescopes like the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will soon look for life on rocky worlds around Sun-like stars, so…
Almost every known planet host will evolve into a white dwarf, and the surviving planetary material will continue to orbit this stellar remnant. Asteroids perturbed onto star-grazing orbits will become disrupted, forming an accretion disk…