The Search for Life:
How Alone Are We?
Are we alone? LUVOIR will answer this age old question, even if nature doesn't cooperate. LUVOIR's ECLIPS coronagraph will block out starlight to reveal faint Earth-like planets, allowing us to directly image and characterize more than 50 potentially Earth-like planets. With this sample size, LUVOIR goes beyond a search for life--it will quantify just how alone we may be.
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Resolving the Structure of the Universe
HST
LUVOIR A
LUVOIR A resolves structures as small as 100 pc...anywhere in the visible universe. This critical scale corresponds to typical star formation scales. With LUVOIR, we have a new window into the birth of stars and galaxies.
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Revealing the Diversity of Planetary Systems
LUVOIR's not just looking for Earth-like exoplanets. LUVOIR will directly image, detect, and measure the orbits of hundreds of exoplanets of all types, from hot Jupiters to cold sub-Neptunes/super-Earths, revolutionizing our understanding of planet formation and evolution via comparative exoplanetology. LUVOIR's high-contrast coronagraph and large aperture will make follow-up spectral characterization of these faint, strange new worlds routine.
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A New Window into Galaxy Evolution
LUVOIR will bring powerful new tools to help us understand how galaxies evolve, allowing us to measure how these "island Universes" acquire, use, and recycle their gas, explore star formation history across the Hubble sequence, and determine mechanisms that quench star formation.
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Star and Planet Formation
LUVOIR achieves AU-scale imaging and spectroscopy of planet-forming disks, from far-UV to near-IR wavelengths, a unique capability for surveying the birthplace of planetary systems. High-resolution imaging over wide fields and multi-object UV spectroscopy enable the measurement of the structure and composition of protoplanetary environments in unprecedented detail.
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A New Vantage Point in the Solar System
LUVOIR's unprecedented resolution and ability to track solar system objects will enable new remote studies of the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets in our solar system, producing images with resolution comparable to NASA's Juno mission.
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