NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory to Search for Life

NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory to Search for Life

Finding signs of life on planets outside our solar system will require a more powerful space telescope than any ever built. NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory will draw on technologies proven by the agency’s Hubble, Webb, and upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes to peer into the cosmos and find the unique signatures of planets that can support life as well as possibly life itself.

The mission’s main objective would be to identify and directly image at least 25 potentially habitable worlds. It would then use spectroscopy to search for chemical “biosignatures” in these planets’ atmospheres, including gases, such as oxygen and methane, that could serve as critical evidence for life. The observatory would introduce new capabilities to study the universe with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, giving us important new insights into the evolution of cosmic structures, including how galaxies form and develop over time.

Actor John Rhys-Davies narrates this short video about the mission and its objectives.

Learn more about NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory:
https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/habitable-worlds-observatory/

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Narrator: John Rhys-Davies
Animators:   
Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Jonathan North (eMITS)
Jenny McElligott (eMITS)
Producers:
Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC)
Editor: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Audio engineer: Jacob Pinter (eMITS)
Writers:
Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC)
Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Scientists:
Aki Roberge (NASA/GSFC)
Giada Arney (NASA/GSFC)
Duration: 3 minute, 39 seconds
Release Date: July 7, 2025

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