Absolute Expert: Space

JOAN GALAT is the award-winning author of more than 20 books. Her most recent titles include Solve This! Wild and Wacky Challenges for the Genius Engineer in You (National Geographic Kids, 2018) and Stories in the Clouds (Dot to Dot series from Whitecap Books, 2018), which combines the science of the night sky with the ancient myths that give constellations and planets their names. Her books for children explore light pollution, ecology, nature, volcanoes, wildlife, engineering, printmaking, cultural traditions, and history. Her titles include both fiction and nonfiction, often with a focus on one or more STEM or STEAM topics. MUNAZZA ALAM is an astrophysicist who studies low-mass stars and the atmospheric properties of unusual space objects known as brown dwarfs (objects form like stars, but cool and fade over time to look like gas giant planets such as Jupiter). She has collected data for her research by using world-class telescopes all over the globe, including Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona; Mauna Kea Observatories in Hilo, Hawai'i; and Las Campanas Observatory in La Serena, Chile.