astronomy

Heather A. Knutson

Heather A. Knutson is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Heather A. Knutson rather than just read about it. In short: Heather A. Knutson is an astrophysicist and professor of planetary science at California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.

Key takeaways

Heather A. Knutson belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Heather A. Knutson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Heather A. Knutson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Heather A. Knutson is an astrophysicist and professor of planetary science at California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Her research is focused on the study of exoplanets, their composition and formation. In 2016, she was referred to in Popular Science as "the first exoplanet meteorologist, determining the local temperature, weather, and even composition of the atmosphere".

Education

As an undergraduate in the physics department of Johns Hopkins University, Knutson worked part-time as an intern with the Space Telescope Science Institute. In 2004, she graduated with a B.S. in physics with both departmental and university honors. Following her undergraduate work, Knutson completed doctoral studies at Harvard University with doctoral advisor David Charbonneau. She completed her Ph.D. in astronomy there in 2009 upon successful defense of her thesis, entitled Portraits of distant worlds: Characterizing the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.

Academic career Following completion of her doctorate, Knutson worked for two years as a Miller Institute postdoctoral fellow in the department of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she studied the atmospheres of so-called "hot Jupiters," exoplanet gas giants orbiting close to their star, by studying the light from those stars as they were partially eclipsed by their planets. Since 2011, Knutson has been at the California Institute of Technology. Her work characterizing exoplanetary atmospheres has led to a number of awards and recognition, including the American Astronomical Society's Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy in 2013 and Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 2015. She was awarded a CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 2016 for a proposal studying smaller exoplanets and upon recommendation by the same agency was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2017.

Awards and recognition Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2017 National Science Foundation CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development) Award, 2016 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy, American Astronomical Society, 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Physics, 2015 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy, American Astronomical Society, 2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2004

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Heather A. Knutson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Heather A. Knutson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Heather A. Knutson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Heather A. Knutson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Heather A. Knutson

In research: Heather A. Knutson appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Heather A. Knutson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Heather A. Knutson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American astronomers, 21st-century American women scientists, American women academics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Heather A. Knutson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Heather A. Knutson” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Heather A. Knutson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Heather A. Knutson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Heather A. Knutson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Heather A. Knutson in simple terms?

Heather A. Knutson is an astrophysicist and professor of planetary science at California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences.

Why does Heather A. Knutson matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Heather A. Knutson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Heather A. Knutson.