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The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory

Nature Astronomy volume 2, pages 600–604 (2018)Cite this article

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The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a conceptual space-based 4-m telescope with the means to image and characterize potentially habitable planets orbiting Sun-like stars, and with ultraviolet to near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic capabilities suited to general observatory science.

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Fig. 1: The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory mission concept, consisting of a telescope and starshade flying in formation, is the Great Observatory of the 2030s.

Joby Harris, JPL

Fig. 2: The starshade instrument.

main image and spectra, HabEx team; planets in panels a and c, NASA; planet in panel b, Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC); planet in panel d, NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) acknowledgement: R. G. French (Wellesley College), J. Cuzzi (NASA/Ames), L. Dones (SwRI) and J. Lissauer (NASA/Ames); planet in panel e, NASA/JPL

Fig. 3: The baryonic lifecycle.

image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; gas cooling (left), ESO/M. Kornmesser; molecular clouds, FORS Team, 8.2-m VLT Antu, ESO; star formation, T. A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF) and B. A. Wolpa (NOAO/AURA/NSF); supernovae, NRL/ESA, R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins University); stellar mass loss, NASA, ESA, C. R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), and M. Meixner, P. McCullough and G. Bacon (Space Telescope Science Institute); centre galaxy, ESO/WFI (optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiss et al. (submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al. (X-ray); gas cooling (right), NASA, ESA, T. Megeath (University of Toledo) and M. Robberto (STScI)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    B. Scott Gaudi

  2. Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Sara Seager

  3. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Bertrand Mennesson, Alina Kiessling, Keith R. Warfield, Dimitri Mawet, Karl Stapelfeldt & Daniel Stern

  4. Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Kerri Cahoy

  5. Center for Space Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    John T. Clarke

  6. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Shawn Domagal-Goldman & Lee Feinberg

  7. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Olivier Guyon

  8. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    N. Jeremy Kasdin

  9. Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Dimitri Mawet

  10. Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Peter Plavchan

  11. Department of Physics & Astronomy, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Tyler Robinson

  12. Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Leslie Rogers

  13. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Paul Scowen

  14. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Rachel Somerville

  15. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Chris Stark

  16. Global Science Institute, Antigo, WI, USA

    Margaret Turnbull

Authors
  1. B. Scott Gaudi
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  2. Sara Seager
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  3. Bertrand Mennesson
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  4. Alina Kiessling
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  5. Keith R. Warfield
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Consortia

Habitable Exoplanet Observatory Science and Technology Definition Team

  • Kerri Cahoy
  • , John T. Clarke
  • , Shawn Domagal-Goldman
  • , Lee Feinberg
  • , Olivier Guyon
  • , N. Jeremy Kasdin
  • , Dimitri Mawet
  • , Peter Plavchan
  • , Tyler Robinson
  • , Leslie Rogers
  • , Paul Scowen
  • , Rachel Somerville
  • , Karl Stapelfeldt
  • , Chris Stark
  • , Daniel Stern
  •  & Margaret Turnbull

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Scott Gaudi.

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Gaudi, B.S., Seager, S., Mennesson, B. et al. The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory. Nat Astron 2, 600–604 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0549-2

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