NASA is building a new space telescope to search for life on nearby planets. What would it see on ancient Earth?

NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory is the agency's next flagship space telescope, designed to do something no previous instrument has managed: directly image Earth-like planets around nearby stars and analyze the light reflecting off their atmospheres for signs of life. The mission is still years from launch . But the design choices being made right now will determine what it can actually detect. …