Karen Jean Meech facts for kids
Karen J. Meech (born in 1959) is an American astronomer who studies planets. She works at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaiʻi.
Studying Space
Karen Meech specializes in studying planets and space objects. She especially looks at distant comets. She wants to understand how these comets connect to the early days of our Solar System.
She also loves to help people learn about science. Karen Meech works with both professional scientists and amateur astronomers. She also helps science teachers. She started a program called Towards Planetary Systems (TOPS). This program helps high school teachers and students in the Pacific islands learn more about science.
Karen Meech earned her PhD in Planetary Sciences in 1987. She got this degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before that, she received her BS from Rice University in 1981. She has won several important awards for her work. These include the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1988. She also received the American Astronomical Society's H. C. Urey Prize in 1994.
She was part of the team for the Deep Impact mission. She also worked on the NASA Discovery missions EPOXI and Stardust-NExT. For these missions, she helped organize how scientists on Earth and in space watched the objects. Karen Meech leads a team at the University of Hawaiʻi NASA Astrobiology Institute. Their research focuses on "Water and Habitable Worlds." This means they study water and places where life could exist. She is currently the President of the International Astronomical Union Division III. This division focuses on planetary systems science.
Awards and Recognition
An asteroid in the outer main-belt was named after her. This asteroid is called 4367 Meech. Schelte Bus discovered it in 1981.
In 2024, she was named a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. This honor was given for her amazing research. She studied comets both in our solar system and outside it. She also researched how water is spread out in the solar system. She is also recognized for organizing large international science teams. She developed and managed programs to teach planetary science to teachers. She has also given many years of service to the astronomy community.
