On December 4, 2022, I photographed Katherine de Kleer at Caltech, where she moves fluidly between the worlds of planetary science and astrophysics. She is part of a new generation of scientists reshaping how we understand our solar system and the distant worlds beyond it. In her work, she peers into the deep, unseen forces that shape planets and moons, unraveling the secrets of their atmospheres, surfaces, and subsurface oceans.

De Kleer is particularly known for her studies of Jupiter’s moon Io, a world of fire and chaos, where active volcanoes continually reshape the landscape. Her research uses both ground-based telescopes and space missions to study the extreme environments of our cosmic neighbors, from the cryovolcanic eruptions on distant moons to the shifting atmospheres of exoplanets.

Beyond her scientific rigor, de Kleer brings a quiet intensity to her work, a sense of awe that seems to fuel her relentless pursuit of answers. She is not simply cataloging data; she is storytelling on a planetary scale, revealing the dynamic forces that have shaped these celestial bodies over billions of years.

In a field where discovery often means interpreting signals from light-years away, de Kleer possesses the rare ability to translate the abstract into the tangible. Her work is not just about distant worlds, it is about understanding the fundamental processes that shape our own, tracing the invisible threads that connect Earth to the cosmos.