NASA Shares Its Plans For Telescope Designed To Spot Life On Alien Planets

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have just launched sometime last year, but its successor is already in talks to take over. And this time, planets at the edges of our galaxy aren’t the only thing the new telescope will be searching for.
 
In light of JWST’s success in sending back marvelous pictures which give us a window into the history of our cosmos, the new eye in the sky will, this time, be on the hunt for extraterrestrial life.
 
According to Science, the news was released during the American Astronomical Society meeting, where NASA’s astrophysics division director Mark Clampin revealed the initial plans for the telescope. The observatory is set to orbit in the same Lagrange Point as the JWST, roughly 0.93 million miles from Earth. It will also host robotic servicing and upgrades, which could see its survival for decades.
 
The same technology was incorporated into NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, allowing scientists on Earth to repair it in space. This gives them some flexibility and the ability to develop it so that it can handle more complex missions as it ages.
 
Clampin also announced a working name in progress, Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). HWO is currently scheduled for a launch in the early 2040s, which is a long way off before we receive news on intergalactic life.
 
Despite this, NASA plans to release another telescope in 2027 called the Nancy Grace Roman Observatory, a 7-foot survey telescope on the hunt for dark energy and exoplanets.
 
 
 
[via Futurism and Science, Photo 103245560 © Emoke Kupai | Dreamstime.com]