Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter Exoplanets

Friday, 15 September 2023, 14:00   (H 3007)

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)

Andreas Quirrenbach
Landessternwarte, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg

The 2020 US Decadal Survey recommended as its first priority that NASA should start a Great Observatories Mission and Technology Maturation Program (GOMAP) to lay the technological foundations for large future space observatories. The first mission to enter this program is a large (~6 m aperture) infrared/optical/ultraviolet (IR/O/UV) space telescope, now called Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Building on the previous HabEx and LUVOIR studies, HWO will provide the capability of searching for signatures of life on planets outside of the Solar System, employing coronography or an external starshade. HWO will also be equipped with instrumentation enabling a wide range of observing programs in all areas of astrophysics. I will present an overview of the current status of HWO and the plans for the further development of the mission concept within GOMAP, and I will discuss possibilities for European participation, which has been proposed in White Papers submitted to ESA in response to the Cosmic Vision and Voyage 2050 calls.