Reporting live from NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory conference at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC, from July 28 ‐ 31, 2025.

This milestone event brings together scientists, engineers, industry, and community stakeholders to propel the development of HWO, a mission expected to usher in a new era of astrophysics discovery and address one of humanity's oldest questions "Are we alone?" A running agenda and updated posters can be found here: Agenda, Plenary Talks, and Posters

For members of the broader community that cannot attend the HWO2025 conference in person, you can watch the Plenary Sessions of “Towards the Habitable Worlds Observatory: Visionary Science and Transformational Technology” conference live or watch recorded talks on the STScI Research YouTube channel!

Here are the times:

Mon July 28	8:30 AM – 6:00 PM EDT
Tues July 29	8:30 AM – 5:15 PM EDT
Wed July 30	8:30 AM – 2 PM EDT
Thurs July 31	8:30 AM – 2 PM EDT

Note: the parallel sessions in the afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday will not be streamed live (they’re only available to those with a “virtual registration”), but both the plenaries and parallels will be recorded and posted on the HWO25 website after the conference.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Science

• Galaxy Growth: Intergalactic & Circumgalactic Medium, Active Galactic Nuclei & Black Holes
• Evolution of the Elements: Stars & Stellar Populations, Star Formation & Interstellar Medium, Cosmic Explosions
• Cosmology: Nature of Dark Matter & Dark Energy, Distance Scale, Hubble Tension
• Planetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, Architectures, Our Solar System, Exoplanet Demographics
• Search for Life: Target Stars & Systems, Biosignatures, Habitability

Technology

• Starlight Suppression: Contrast Technology & Methods
• Ultrastable Telescope and Observatory Technology
• Ultraviolet, Optical, & Near-Infrared Instrument Technologies: mirror coatings, gratings, detectors, spectroscopic multiplexing technologies
• Emerging Technologies: photonics, quantum sensing
• L2 Servicing technology and commercial synergies
• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning for mission development, engineering, science research

For more conference information, please see https://www.stsci.edu/events/HWO25.

Keep apprised of updates through our HWO mailing list, and be part of this exciting journey!