Nov 3, 2026 · 51 min
HWO expands the search for habitable worlds
The Habitable Worlds Observatory with Evgenya Shkolnik
The mission could examine Earth-sized planets while revealing how stellar activity, magnetic fields, and unfamiliar biology complicate the search for life.
- 1Habitability depends on atmospheres, stellar behavior, magnetic protection, and subsurface or moon environments—not distance from a star alone.
- 2Ultraviolet observations are essential for interpreting atmospheric chemistry and biosignatures, especially around active red dwarf stars.
- 3HWO’s exoplanet program will share time with broader astrophysics, leaving room for discoveries beyond its central mission.
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Shkolnik broadens habitability beyond surface oceans by discussing moons, subsurface environments, magnetic protection, and life unlike Earth’s.
The brief
Evgenya Shkolnik joins Neil deGrasse Tyson and Matt Kirshen to explain why finding Earth-sized planets is only the first step toward assessing whether they could host life.
The conversation challenges a simple Goldilocks-zone definition of habitability, bringing in ultraviolet radiation, stellar flares, magnetic fields, moons, subsurface environments, and biology unlike Earth’s.
Shkolnik describes the Habitable Worlds Observatory as a large, multi-instrument flagship that would find promising planets, characterize their atmospheres, and support wider astrophysical research.
A central tension emerges: scientists need Earth-like signatures to make the search tractable, but an Earth bias could obscure life built on unfamiliar chemistry or energy sources.
The episode closes on HWO’s limited reach and broad promise, linking its exoplanet goals to ultraviolet studies of galaxies, star formation, and discoveries no mission plan can fully anticipate.
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