Exploring the Atmospheres of Ice Giants: Uranus and Neptune in the Age of Exoplanets

Larger than terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars yet smaller than giants Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune hold a special place in the spectrum of planets. From working on the imaging team for the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune in 1989, to leading a large planetary program with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Heidi Hammel has spent 30 years teasing out the atmospheric secrets of these two “ice giants.”

As our detection of exoplanets has exploded in recent years, we have learned that the most common types, sub-Neptunes and super-Earths, do not exist in our solar system. Even without ground-based observations, the study of Neptune and Uranus offer insights and can shed light on far distant planets. In this Presidential Lecture, Hammel will share her extensive knowledge of Neptune and Uranus and show how our newest studies of these unique worlds are informing our understanding of planets well beyond.

Heidi Hammel is the vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), which operates world-class astronomical observatories for the U.S. government. She served as an interdisciplinary scientist advising NASA on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Her JWST observational program spanned the breadth of the solar system, but throughout her career her primary research has focused on Neptune and Uranus. Asteroid “1981 EC20” has been renamed 3530 Hammel in her honor.