Cosmic Origins
Searching for answers about our universe and its origins

Habitable Worlds Observatory
(HWO)



PIA19830: Pantheon of Planets Similar to Earth (Artist's Concept). Image Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

"Inspired by the vision of searching for signatures of life on planets outside of our solar system, and by the transformative capability such a telescope would have for a wide range of astrophysics, the priority recommendation in the frontier category for space is a large (~6 m diameter) IR/O/UV telescope with high-contrast (10-10) imaging and spectroscopy. This is an ambitious mission, of a scale comparable to the HST and JWST space telescopes. It is also one that will be revolutionary, and that worldwide only NASA is positioned to lead." (Text source: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 [Astro2020])

Ultraviolet Astrophysics

Ultraviolet wavelengths are important to answer many questions in astrophysics. In addition to being sensitive to optical and near-infrared, Habitable Worlds Observatory will be sensitive to ultraviolet light.

White Papers

  • Lyman UV White Paper (non-peer-reviewed) [PDF]
  • LUVOIR Final Report Chapter 6 [PDF]
News
9 December 2024
Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics Research
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ROSES-24 Amendment 80: D.12 Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks Deferred to ROSES-25
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ROSES-24 Amendment 72: D.14 Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Research and Support Participation Opportunities Final Text and Due Dates
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Save The Date: Cosmic Origins Activities at AAS 245 in National Harbor, MD | January 12th – 15th 2025
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Cosmic Pathfinders Program at AAS245 | Beyond the Horizon: NASA Astrophysics Trivia Challenge | January 13th 2025, 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
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IR STIG seminar: New Views of Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies with ~100,000 Star Clusters and Associations from PHANGS HST & JWST | Monday, December 9th 2024, at 3:00pm ET
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