By The Chronicle Staff

Scientists are developing a powerful new technology that could one day help answer one of humanity's oldest questions: Are we alone in the universe?

Researchers have announced a major advance in a specialized optical instrument designed to help future space telescopes directly detect Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

The technology is being developed with NASA's proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, a next-generation mission aimed at identifying planets that could potentially support life.

Finding planets outside our solar system is already difficult, but spotting rocky worlds similar to Earth is even more challenging because they are tiny and incredibly faint compared to the stars they orbit.

In many cases, the light from a host star can outshine an Earth-sized planet by a factor of billions, making direct observation nearly impossible.

The new technology addresses that problem by using advanced optics capable of dramatically reducing the glare from a star while allowing the faint light reflected from an orbiting planet to become visible.

Scientists compare the challenge to trying to photograph a firefly hovering next to a massive spotlight from thousands of miles away.

If perfected, the system would allow astronomers not only to detect distant planets but also to analyze the chemical makeup of their atmospheres.

By studying the light passing through or reflecting off an atmosphere, researchers could search for gases such as oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor—molecules that may indicate conditions suitable for life.

The technology is still under development, but researchers say it represents an important step toward future missions capable of directly studying potentially habitable worlds beyond our solar system.

NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory, currently in the planning and technology maturation phase, is expected to build on the discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope while focusing specifically on finding Earth-like planets around nearby stars.

Scientists emphasize that discovering a planet within a star's "habitable zone"—where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist—is only the first step. The real breakthrough would come from determining whether those planets possess stable atmospheres and chemical signatures consistent with life.

Researchers believe advances like this one are bringing that goal closer than ever.

While an actual discovery of extraterrestrial life may still be years or decades away, each improvement in telescope technology increases the chances that future observatories will be able to identify worlds that closely resemble our own.

"If we can identify habitable worlds around other stars and show they possess conditions where Earth-like life could survive, that's already revolutionary," one researcher noted. "If we discover actual evidence of life, then we're talking about one of the greatest scientific discoveries in human history." ■