UCF Researchers Are Developing Tools to Help Find Habitable Planets
Researchers at the University of Central Florida are developing photonics-based technology to assist NASA's future Habitable Worlds Observatory. This project aims to enable the direct observation of rocky exoplanets by filtering out the intense light from their host stars.
Why it matters
Advancing exoplanet detection technology is essential for identifying potentially habitable worlds and answering fundamental questions about life in the universe.
NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be the premier exoplanet-hunting space telescope once it launches sometime in the 2040s. This large infrared/optical/ultraviolet space telescope will be the first observatory specifically designed to search for rocky planets orbiting within their parent stars' circumsolar habitable zones (HZs) and characterize their atmospheres. Its powerful suite of instruments will also enable cutting-edge astrophysics research to address the greatest cosmological mysteries astronomers face today.
To carry out its objectives, the HWO will require exceptional stability and precision, particularly in measuring and controlling the wavefront of light as it propagates through the telescope and coronagraph system. Researchers at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) are developing this technology to help the HWO and other next-generation telescopes detect habitable planets.
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