Bioverse: Assessing the Ability of Direct Imaging Surveys to Empirically Constrain the Habitable Zone via Trends in Albedo

Will future direct imaging missions such as NASA’s upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) be able to understand Earth-sized planets as a population? In this study, we simulate the ability of space-based coronagraphy missions to uncover trends in planetary albedo as a function of instellation, and potentially constrain the boundaries of the habitable zone (HZ). We adapt the Bioverse statistical comparative planetology framework to simulate the scientific output of possible designs for HWO. With this tool, we generate a synthetic planetary population with injected population-level trends in albedo and simulate the observability of planets. We then determine the statistical power to which these trends can be recovered as a function of the strength of the injected trend and the sample size of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone (exoEarths). The strongest trends in albedo require a sample size of roughly 25–30 exoEarths to recover with high confidence. However, for weaker albedo trends, the required number of planets increases rapidly. If a mission is designed to meet the Decadal Survey’s requirement of 25 exoEarths, it would be able to recover very strong trends in albedo associated with the HZ, but would struggle to confidently detect weaker trends. We explore multiple strategies to increase one’s ability to recover weak trends, such as reducing the uncertainties in observables, incorporating additional observables such as planet colors, and obtaining direct constraints on planetary albedo from full spectral retrievals.