NASA and its partners are starting to develop plans for the Habitable Worlds Observatory flagship mission that's due to launch in the late 2030s or 2040s. Its primary goal will be to observe other Earth-sized worlds orbiting Sun-like stars within the habitable zone. To do this requires blocking the light from the star with an internal coronagraph and a separate starshield. A new paper suggests that NASA should consider a "photonic chronograph" that could be twice as effective in revealing faint planets beside bright stars.