HWO will feature advanced instruments like a coronagraph and polarimeter, making it capable of imaging exoplanets and detecting light vibrations that reveal biosignatures, surpassing current telescopes.

As part of the Astro2020 Decadal Survey, HWO's development emphasizes the need for cutting-edge technology and funding to explore habitable worlds beyond our solar system.

The proposed program involves four stages: identifying habitable worlds, determining if they are 'living,' mapping their surfaces, and measuring biosignatures like homochiral molecules.

The upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission aims to identify and study potentially habitable exoplanets through a detailed, four-stage observational program.

Led by Svetlana Berdyugina of ISROL in Switzerland, a new observational plan aims to definitively prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Scheduled for launch in the early 2040s, the HWO project is a major scientific endeavor with an estimated cost of around $10 billion, aiming to answer fundamental questions about extraterrestrial life.

The search for 'Living Worlds' will leverage data from existing telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, which has already identified candidates in habitable zones.

HWO's ability to detect weak signals of molecular chirality could provide definitive evidence of biological processes, distinguishing life from non-biological phenomena.

Once a potentially habitable world is identified, HWO will create low-resolution surface maps to differentiate land, ocean, and areas with photosynthetic life.

The mission will focus on detecting biosignatures such as biopigments like chlorophyll through their polarized light signatures, which are undetectable with current technology.

Despite budget uncertainties that could impact HWO's development, its success promises significant breakthroughs in understanding exoplanet biospheres.