PyISH: Python Integral Field Spectroscopy Simulation for Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)

The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will be a large ultraviolet/optical/near-infrared space telescope operating at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.

HWO was highly recommended by the National Academies` 2020 decadal survey and will be the first telescope designed specifically to search for life on planets orbiting other stars. HWO will also be able to perform a host of other transformational astrophysics, including cosmology, galaxy evolution, solar system science, and beyond. The development of the telescope and instrument suite is an iterative process.

Example observatory architectures, called exploratory analytic cases (EACs) by the HWO Technology Maturation Project Office (TMPO), are modeled end-to-end to explore the engineering and science trade space. Recently, an ultraviolet Integral Field Spectrograph (UV IFS) was added to HWO’s instrument suite for the EACs 4 and 5. To explore the science and engineering trade space for this specific instrument, we developed a high-fidelity UV IFS simulation tool, PyISH.

The UV IFS simulation tool is designed to be used by scientists to model specific science cases as seen by a UV IFS on HWO, as well as engineers to explore the trade space when developing potential instrument architectures. The modular components, deliverables, and an example of the tool simulating a specific science case proposed for HWO are described in this paper.

Grace Sweetak, Breann Sitarski, Kevin France, Randall McEntaffer, Richard Cartwright

Comments: 42 pages, 15 figures
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2601.14432 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2601.14432v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.14432
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Submission history
From: Grace Sweetak
[v1] Tue, 20 Jan 2026 19:40:51 UTC (8,772 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14432
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry, Astronomy,