Suppressing starlight with a shapeshifting mirrorĪ planet that looks like Earth but with yellowish shades and a distant star are seen in space. 'As we get closer and closer to this required level of starlight suppression, the challenges become exponentially harder,' Mawet added.

The coronagraph lets the KPIC picture thermal emissions from young and hot gas-giant exoplanets, allowing scientists to investigate how these planets and their planetary systems evolve.Įarth-like planets that the HWO will set its sights on can emit light around 10 billion times fainter than that of their stars, meaning a coronagraph for the future space telescope would need to push starlight well past its current limits.

Keck Observatory is already using a coronagraph invented by Mawet in conjunction with the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) to study exoplanets. Located on the Hawaiian mountain Mauna Kea, the W. Siegler added that currently, NASA has decided to focus the HWO around coronagraph technology used on several other telescopes, including the JWST and forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. Or alternatively, it could use an internal starshade called a coronagraph, similar to instruments scientists use to block out light from the sun’s bright photosphere to study its nebulous outer atmosphere, or corona. On one hand, it could utilize a large external light block called a starshade, which would unfurl from the HWO after its launch into a massive sunflower-shaped umbrella. There are two main ways that the HWO could potentially block out excess starlight. Such chemical fingerprints could include biosignatures indicating chemical compounds exhaled or inhaled by living things. Scientists take this light and, using a process called spectroscopy, search for these fingerprints.

Chemical elements and compounds absorb and emit light at unique wavelengths characteristic to their compositions, meaning light exposed to a planet's atmosphere carries fingerprints of elements it is made of. To perform deep investigations of exoplanet atmospheres in order to hunt for signs of life, the HWO will tap into its ability to block out the glares of stars those exoplanets orbit.īlocking strong light coming from these stars will allow fainter bits of starlight, reflecting off the atmospheres of orbiting planets around these stars, to be seen. (Image credit: NASA/Robert Lea (Inset) NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. An illustration shows the Habitable Worlds Telescope in orbit around Earth and (inset) the kind of exoplanet the project will investigate for telltale signs of life.

Green color hunt