Caltech Researcher Granted Precious Observation Time at NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope For many astronomers, NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) is considered the crème de la crème of research
tools—one of the best observatories available for their studies.
This being the case, competition for time with the telescope can
be fierce. But Heather A. Knutson, a recent addition to the
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech, will
soon get the chance to spend some quality time with the
telescope. She is part of an international research team, lead
by scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK, which has
secured nearly 200 hours of observation time on HST. Knutson
will study the atmospheres of two exoplanets—planets outside of
our solar system—over 15 orbits, which roughly translates to 23
hours of observation time. "We have very little idea of what to
expect, as these planets are very different than anything we
have in our own solar system," says Knutson, assistant professor
of planetary scien