HWO Target Stars and Systems: A Prioritized Community List of Potential Stellar Targets for the Habitable Worlds Observatory’s ExoEarth Survey

Abstract The HWO Target Stars and Systems 2025 (TSS25) list is a community-developed catalog of potential stellar targets for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) in its survey to directly image Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone. The TSS25 list categorizes potential HWO targets into priority tiers based on their likelihood to be surveyed and the necessity of obtaining observations of their stellar properties prior to the launch of the mission. This target list builds upon previous efforts to identify direct imaging targets and incorporates the results of multiple yield calculations assessing the science return of current design concepts for HWO. The TSS25 list identifies a sample of target stars that have a high probability to be observed by HWO (Tiers 1 and 2), independent of assumptions about the mission’s final architecture. These stars should be the focus of community precursor science efforts in order to mitigate risks and maximize the science output of HWO. This target list is publicly available and is a living catalog that will be continually updated leading up to the mission.