Abstract: We live in a Galaxy full of exoplanets; essentially every star in the sky is orbited by planets. Our technological and analytical capabilities for detecting the minuscule signals of exoplanets is rapidly improving, and we are now able to inventory the planet systems of nearby stars down to rocky worlds like Earth. At the same time, new telescope systems are coming online that offer the ability to constrain the surfaces and atmospheres of Earthlike planets, potentially detecting chemical or technological signals of life outside the Solar System. Our task now is to identify the most promising Earth analogs for detailed characterization, setting the target lists and observing strategies for next-generation telescopes.
I will highlight the technical and scientific breakthroughs achieved by the Habitable-zone Planet Finder and NEID Spectrometers, which detect the gravitational signals of nearby exoplanets on their host stars at centimeters-per-second levels of precision. Using these instruments, we have discovered some of the best exoplanets for astrobiological characterization to date. With continued investment of telescope time, we can push our exoplanet surveys further, finding true “Earth twins” that will be the top targets of space-based flagship observatories to detect life on nearby planets.