Japan Proposes Coronagraph Contributions to NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory
A team of Japanese astronomers has published a study detailing how Japan could contribute coronagraph technology and science programs to NASA's planned Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The paper draws on Japan's experience with the SPICA coronagraph, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the SCExAO instrument on the Subaru Telescope. The work is significant because international hardware-sharing decisions for HWO's coronagraph will shape the observatory's ability to image potentially habitable exoplanets.
Researchers from multiple Japanese institutions, led by Keigo Enya, have submitted a paper to the HWO2025 proceedings outlining Japan's prospective scientific and hardware contributions to the coronagraph instrument aboard the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a flagship NASA mission concept aimed at directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets. The team proposes contributions ranging from large-scale hardware — including a full optical and mechanical layout for an infrared coronagraph — down to individual high-contrast imaging components, leveraging expertise gained from prior projects such as SPICA, Roman, and Subaru/SCExAO. The paper identifies the inner working angle (IWA) and sensitivity of the near-infrared (NIR) coronagraph as especially critical performance parameters, noting that a small IWA is essential for observing nearby planetary systems. The authors suggest that dedicated observations of a limited number of targets close to the solar system could serve as a key science program given current technological constraints. They also stress the importance of developing parallel solutions using more robust coronagraph designs alongside cutting-edge approaches, and of resolving how visible and NIR coronagraphs can coexist within the observatory's volume, mass, and budget limits. Japan envisions multigenerational participation in HWO, acknowledging that not all proposed contributions may be incorporated into the first generation of instruments.
What's missing
The paper does not specify the current status of formal negotiations or agreements between Japanese space agencies (e.g., JAXA) and NASA regarding HWO contributions, nor does it address the overall HWO mission timeline or funding status, which remain subject to U.S. decadal survey implementation decisions.
What different sources said
- arXiv astro-phCenter
Japan's Possible Contributions for Coronagraph of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)
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