LIFE (Large Interferometer For Exoplanets) is a proposed mid-infrared space-based nulling-interferometer concept for direct-imaging and atmospheric spectroscopy of nearby terrestrial exoplanets. Led from ETH Zürich (PI: Sascha P. Quanz) and partnered across European institutions, LIFE targets the thermal-infrared band where habitable-zone biosignature gases like ozone, water, CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, and phosphine have strong spectral features.
Architecture (Keck Institute roadmap, June 2026)
A W.M. Keck Institute for Space Studies roadmap report (Quanz, Mennesson, Beichman et al., arXiv:2606.10108, submitted June 8, 2026) details the baseline design:
- Five spacecraft in formation: four collector spacecraft arrayed in a plane + one central beam combiner
- Separation: tens to hundreds of meters; precision formation-flying demonstrated by precursor missions SEIRIOS and SunRISE
- Method: mid-IR nulling interferometry — destructively interferes starlight while constructively combining the planet’s thermal emission
- Target biosignatures: ozone, methane, water, CO₂, phosphine (phosphine described as a potential “capstone” biosignature)
- Enabling advance: astrophotonics miniaturization has shrunk critical optical beam-combination hardware from bench-size to microchip scale since the cancelled precursors TPF-I (NASA) and Darwin (ESA)
Relationship to HWO
LIFE and HWO are explicitly complementary, not competing:
- HWO: coronagraph in visible/UV; detects reflected starlight; targets planet albedo and atmospheric absorption in visible bands
- LIFE: nulling interferometer in mid-IR; detects thermal emission; targets mid-IR biosignature gas features with far lower stellar contrast
“Combining both datasets prevents misidentifying abiotic processes as biosignatures.” — Quanz et al. 2026
Both missions target 2040s launches; the roadmap recommends international collaborative funding. (src-life-fleet-telescope-2026-06)
Science targets
Nearby habitable-zone planets such as gj-887-d and the candidate gas giant around alpha-centauri-a are prime LIFE targets. The mid-IR band is especially well-suited to discriminating abiotic from biotic spectral signals (see src-mineral-false-positives-biosignatures-2026-05).