NASA's new proposed space telescope will be hunting for life on Earth-like planets as early as the early 2040s. It will be a multibillion-dollar successor to the trailblazing James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which has made profound discoveries a year into its deployment to space.
According to Science, NASA's astrophysics division director Mark Clampin disclosed during this week's conference of the American Astronomical Society that most of the specifics still need to be worked out, although it now has a working name of Habitable World Observatory (HWO). It is a historic event offering a fascinating vision of the ongoing hunt for extraterrestrial life.
NASA Astrophysics Division Director Dr. Mark Clampin talks about an image of the protostar L1527 made by the James Webb Space Telescope while testifying before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on November 16, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Proposed Extraterrestrial Life Hunter
The observatory will be built from the ground up to be upgradeable by robots, Futurism reported. That means that future spacecraft will be able to visit it and upgrade or repair its main components.
However, it would be a long trip if that is the case. Just like the JWST, the HWO space telescope will circle the Sun at a Lagrange Point that will keep it close to Earth, around a million miles distant.
But the observatory will not be the next multibillion-dollar telescope launched by NASA in the coming years. If all goes as planned, the government will deploy its dark energy and exoplanet-hunting Nancy Grace Roman Observatory around 2027.
So far, numerous concepts have been made for NASA's HWO. One of them is the single-segment, 4-meter mirror observatory called HabEx and a multisegmented, 15-meter observatory called LUVOIR. The HWO will likely fall somewhere in the middle of both concepts, with a combination of technology influenced by both.
Making it maintainable and upgradeable, like NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is, might provide scientists some breathing room and flexibility in its evolution. It may also make HWO more appealing to Congress, which is critical given NASA's financial limits and challenges in getting financing for the JWST.
READ ALSO: Extraterrestrial Life Forms Might Be Waiting for the Right Time to Contact Earth, New Study Suggests
Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx)
According to NASA-JPL, the Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a mission idea that would directly examine planetary systems orbiting Sun-like stars.
HabEx is designed to be sensitive to many sorts of planets, but its primary purpose will be to directly scan and describe Earth-like exoplanets for the first time. HabEx will seek signs of habitability, such as water, and be sensitive to chemicals in the atmosphere that might indicate biological activity, such as oxygen or ozone, by monitoring the spectra of these planets.
Additionally, HabEx will enable a wide range of general astrophysics research, from studying the earliest epochs of the Universe's history to understanding the life cycle and deaths of the most massive stars, which eventually supply the elements required to support life like on Earth.
A big and stable space telescope with an extraordinary resolution that is sensitive to ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared photons will also be used for these studies, which is the same technology that HabEx will use to study Earth-like planets. Furthermore, the HabEx concept is particularly appealing since it is ready for development, being both technologically and scientifically feasible within the next decade.
RELATED ARTICLE: James Webb Space Telescope Could Detect Signs of Life in Exoplanets in Just 3 Days
Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.
