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Heather Knutson

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description Heather Knutson Overview

Heather Knutson is an American astronomer and professor at the California Institute of Technology who studies exoplanet atmospheres. Her observational work measures how the brightness and emitted heat of a planet change during its orbit, producing temperature maps and constraints on atmospheric circulation, especially for hot Jupiters. She is a useful reference for readers interested in exoplanet climate, thermal emission, phase curves, and methods used to infer weather on worlds around other stars.

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What is Heather Knutson known for in astronomy?

She is known for making temperature maps of exoplanets by tracking how a planet's brightness changes over its orbit. She led the team that used the Spitzer Space Telescope to map the day and night sides of the hot Jupiter HD 189733b, work published in 2007 and often described as the first weather map of an exoplanet.

Where does Heather Knutson work?

She is a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, where her group studies exoplanet atmospheres. Her doctoral training was at Harvard, after which she built her career in exoplanet observation before joining Caltech.

What is a thermal phase curve, the technique Knutson uses?

A phase curve is a measurement of a planet's total brightness as it orbits its star, which reveals how heat is distributed between the permanent day and night sides of tidally locked planets. Knutson's phase-curve work on hot Jupiters like HD 189733b showed strong day-night temperature differences, evidence for winds redistributing heat.

Which famous exoplanets has Heather Knutson studied?

Her best-known targets are hot Jupiters such as HD 189733b, which she mapped with Spitzer, and HD 209458b, the first exoplanet ever seen transiting its star. She has also worked on cooler, smaller planets and on atmospheric escape detected with the Hubble Space Telescope.