\n
No done deals<\/h2>\n
Still, HWO will have its work cut out for it. Even if it is lucky enough to detect a promising signal from a planet, Hammel says, the mission\u2019s science team will need to be able to tease out all the relevant information they can to build up a complete picture of what the signal might mean in its context.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know there’s methane on Neptune, too, but that doesn’t mean that there’s cows there, right?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Focusing on stars like the Sun also comes with a tradeoff. While we know from our own experience that an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star can host life, astronomers aren\u2019t sure how common such worlds actually are. Current\u00a0estimates range from roughly one potentially Earth-like world existing for every six stars, on average, to at least one such planet existing around every star. Though HWO is being planned with this range in mind, if Earth twins turn out to be rare, HWO could have too few targets for its survey to mean much.<\/p>\n
Shkolnik, who is co-chair of the Community Science Instrument Team that helps guide HWO\u2019s design, still says our \u201cfastest bet\u201d to finding life on exoplanets is through the mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn’t think HWO could do it, I wouldn’t be working on it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Always tell me the odds<\/h2>\n
So, how close are we to finding life on exoplanets?<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m betting that we’re going to need Habitable Worlds to really answer the question, \u2018Are we alone in the Universe?\u2019\u201d Hammel said. And yet, she adds, every planet JWST explores has the potential to surprise us.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s always possible that something crazy happens,\u201d Hammel said. \u201cWe could be one observation away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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