Niki Parenteau; Giada Arney; Eleanora Alei; Ruslan Belikov; Svetlana; Berdyugina; Dawn Cardace; Ligia F. Coelho; Kevin Fogarty; Kenneth Gordon; Jonathan Grone; Natalie Hinkel; Nancy Kiang; Ravi Kopparapu; Joshua Krissansen-Totton; Emilie LaFleche; Jacob Lustig-Yaeger; Eric Mamajek; Avi Mandell; Taro Matsuo; Connor Metz; Mark Moussa; Stephanie Olson; Lucas Patty; Bill Philpot; Sukrit Ranjan; Edward Schwieterman; Clara Sousa-Silva; Anna Grace Ulses; Sara Walker; Daniel Whitt · 2026
Paper
Executive Summary: The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is the first astrophysics flagship mission with a key cross-divisional astrobiology science goal of searching for signs of life on rocky planets beyond our solar system. The Living Worlds Working Group under the Science, Technology, and Architecture Review Team (START) was charged with investigating how HWO could characterize potentially habitable exoplanets orbiting stars in the solar neighborhood, search for signs of life, and interpret potential biosignatures within a false positive and false negative framework. In particular, we focused on (1) identifying biosignatures that have spectral features in the UV-Vis-NIR wavelength range and defining their measurement requirements, (2) determining additional information needed from the planet and planet system to interpret biosignatures and assess the likelihood of false positives, and (3) assembling current knowledge of likely HWO target stars and identify which properties of host stars and systems are most critical to know in advance of HWO. The Living Worlds atmospheric biosignatures science case is considered one of the key drivers in the design of the observatory. An additional 10 astrobiology science cases were developed that collectively revealed key research gaps and needs required to fully explore the observatory parameter space and perform science return analyses. Investment in these research gaps will require coordination across the Science Mission Directorate and fall under the purview of the new Division-spanning astrobiology strategy.
Analysis
This white paper outlines research gaps and needs for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) to characterize potentially habitable exoplanets, search for life, and interpret biosignatures within a false positive/negative framework.
Discovery
Nancy Y. Kiang; Christopher Gisriel; Robert E. Blankenship; Mary N. Parenteau; Hazel A. Barton; Oded Béjà; Anthony J. Burnetti; Ligia F. Coelho; Saleheh Ebadirad; Nathan M. Ennist; Yuka Fujii; Colin Gates; R. J. Graham; Keiichi Inoue; Betül Kaçar; Yu Komatsu; Émilie A. Laflèche; Nicoletta La Rocca; Elisabetta Liistro; Jonathan Lindsey; Timothy Lyons; Carolina A. Martinez-Gutierrez; Taro Matsuo; Victoria Meadows; Gary F. Moore; Massimo Olivucci; Kevin E. Redding; Edward W. Schwieterman; Tejinder Singh; Kenji Takizawa; Anna Grace Ulses; Junko Yano; Felisa Wolfe-Simon; Michael L. Wong; Anastasia G. Yanchilina
Peter M. Higgins; Weibin Chen; Oliver Warr; Lucas M. Fifer; Wanying Kang; Charles S. Cockell; Barbara Sherwood Lollar
Caroline Haslebacher; Emeline Bolmont; Marco Cilibrasi; Jonathan Grone; Nico Haslebacher; Ravit Helled; Mathilde Kervazo; Niels F. W. Ligterink; Christophe Lovis; Lucio Mayer; Lorenzo Obersnel; Rafael Ottersberg; Apurva V. Oza; C. H. Lucas Patty; Antoine Pommerol; Ganna Portyankina; Alyssa R. Rhoden; Leander Schlarmann; Yuhito Shibaike; Vishaal Singh; Audrey H. Vorburger; Peter Wurz
Conor A. Nixon; Samuel Birch; Audrey Chatain; Charles Cockell; Kendra K. Farnsworth; Peter M. Higgins; Stéphane Le Mouélic; Rosaly M. C. Lopes; Michael J. Malaska; Mohit Melwani Daswani; Kelly E. Miller; Catherine D. Neish; Olaf G. Podlaha; Jani Radebaugh; Lauren R. Schurmeier; Ashley Schoenfeld; Krista M. Soderlund; Anezina Solomonidou; Christophe Sotin; Nicholas A. Teanby; Tetsuya Tokano; Steven D. Vance
Saggio D; Phung CL; Bravo M; Corcoran TC; Snyder JC; Stieber SCE
Oza AV; Johnson RE; Schmidt CA; Calvin WM; Yung YL
Source record