ASTRONOMERS at the city’s Royal Observatory have been awarded £1m to help develop core technologies for a major new NASA mission searching for habitable planets. The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC), based in the observatory, will use the funding to support the planned Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is based at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. Professor Christophe Dumas, Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, said: “This funding from the UK Space Agency enables UK ATC, and our partners across the UK, to help develop technologies that will help answer one of humanity’s oldest questions: are we alone in the Universe? Dr Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at the UK Space Agency, said: “Habitable Worlds Observatory is being designed to answer whether we are alone in the universe and will require technological advances as well as scientific breakthroughs.