How Heather Knutson Reads The Weather On Exoplanets
Heather Knutson Joel Kimmel Meet the world's first exoplanet meteorologist. Each year, Popular Science seeks out the brightest young scientists and engineers and names them the Brilliant Ten. Like the 110 honorees before them, the members of this year's class are dramatically reshaping their fields--and the future. Some are tackling pragmatic questions, like how to secure the Internet, while others are attacking more abstract ones, like determining the weather on distant exoplanets. The common thread between them is brilliance, of course, but also impact. If the Brilliant Ten are the faces of things to come, the world will be a safer, smarter, and brighter place.--The Editors Heather Knutson California Institute of Technology Achievement Reading the weather on exoplanets In recent years, scientists have discovered thousands of planets orbiting distant stars. Caltech astronomer Heather Knutson spends her days figuring out what a cosmic traveler might need for the trip. She is, in essence, the first...