Thérèse Encrenaz (née Gounon,^[1] born 1946) is a French planetary scientist who "played a leading role in the development of planetology in Europe".^[2] Her research concerns extraterrestrial atmospheres, particularly of the planets and comets in the Solar System. She is a research director for the CNRS, emeritus, affiliated with the Paris Observatory.^[3]

Encrenaz was born on March 10, 1946.^[4] After studies at the École normale supérieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses [fr], Goddard Institute for Space Studies, University of Paris, and Paris Observatory,^[2] she earned a diplôme d'études approfondies in 1968, a doctorat de troisième cycle in 1969,^[4] and, in 1975, a doctorat d'état.^[2]

As a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Paris Observatory, she headed the DESPA and LESIA laboratories, and became vice-president of the observatory,^[2] before retiring as research director emeritus.^[3]

She was editor-in-chief of the journal Planetary and Space Science from 2002 to 2007.^[2]

Encrenaz is the namesake of asteroid 5443 Encrenaz, discovered in 1991.^[5]

She is the recipient of the 1998 CNRS Silver Medal, the 2007 Prix Jules Janssen of the Société astronomique de France,^[6] the 2010 David Bates Medal of the European Geosciences Union,^[2] the 2014 Prix Deslandres of the French Academy of Sciences,^[7] and the 2021 Gerard P. Kuiper Prize of the American Astronomical Society.^[3]

She was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2002.^[6] She was named a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 2009, and an officier in 2019.^[1]

Encrenaz is the author or editor of many books on planetology^[2] including:

• The Solar System (with Jean-Pierre Bibring, Intereditions/CNRS, 1987; translated into English by S. Dunlop, Springer, 1990)^[8]
• Infrared Astronomy with ISO (with M. F. Kessler, Nova, 1992)^[9]
• Comet Science: The Study of Remnants from the Birth of the Solar System (with Jacques Crovisier, Belin/CNRS, 1995; translated into English by Stephen Lyle, Cambridge University Press, 2000)^[10]
• The Outer Planets and their Moons: Comparative Studies of the Outer Planets prior to the Exploration of the Saturn System by Cassini-Huygens (with R. Kallenbach, Tobias Owen, and Christophe Sotin, Springer, 2005)
• Searching for Water in the Universe (Springer, 2006)^[11]
• The New Worlds: Extrasolar Planets (with Fabienne Casoli, Springer, 2007)
• Planetary Systems: Detection, Formation and Habitability of Extrasolar Planets (with Marc Ollivier, Françoise Roques, Franck Selsis, and Fabienne Casoli, Springer, 2009)^[12]
• Life beyond Earth: The Search for Habitable Worlds in the Universe (with Athena Coustenis, Cambridge University Press, 2013)^[13]
• Planets: Ours and Others; from Earth to Exoplanets (World Scientific, 2013)^[14]
• The Exoplanets Revolution (with James Lequeux and Fabienne Casoli, EDP Sciences, 2020)
• Planets and Life (with James Lequeux and Fabienne Casoli, EDP Sciences, 2021)

Encrenaz is married to Pierre Encrenaz, who is also an astronomer.^[15]