Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Venus after sunset

To see Venus, look west after sunset. Unless the moon is there, too, it'll be the brightest object you'll see.

Deborah Byrd

March 26, 2018

Is science broken?

A communications scholar offers an argument that science isn't broken or in crisis and that it's media's job to educate people about how science works.

Deborah Byrd

March 25, 2018

Astronomers confirm source of galaxy-sized stream of gas

The Magellanic Stream - 300,000 light-years long - arches around our Milky Way. It's too faint and tenuous to study directly, so astronomers probed it by looking to distant quasars.

Deborah Byrd

March 24, 2018

Did Scholz’s star invade the Oort Cloud?

Scholz´s star - named for its discoverer - is now 20 light-years away. But astronomers say they've verified a flyby of this star 70,000 years ago that disturbed comets in the Oort Cloud.

Deborah Byrd

March 22, 2018

Mars passes the Lagoon and Trifid

Mars is now brightening dramatically and making a beeline through many constellations. Astrophotographer Muzamir Mazlan in Malaysia caught it sweeping between the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae.

Deborah Byrd

March 22, 2018

An unusual shot of anticrepuscular rays

It looks like ordinary crepuscular rays are coming from the reflected sunlight at the base of this mountain. But that's not what's happening in this rare photo.

Deborah Byrd

March 21, 2018

Why do comets emit X-rays? Mystery solved

Researchers fired laser beams onto a plastic foil to mimic some of the conditions comets encounter as they travel through our solar system and to solve a long-standing mystery.

Deborah Byrd

March 20, 2018

Researchers say 1st interstellar asteroid likely from double star

New research suggests that the 1st confirmed interstellar asteroid - called ‘Oumuamua by astronomers - likely came from a system where 2 stars orbit each other.

Deborah Byrd

March 19, 2018

How can you know what to believe?

It's not surprising that a new study linking extreme winter weather in the U.S. East with a warmer Arctic has drawn fire from global warming skeptics. Should you believe the study or the skeptics?

Deborah Byrd

Eleanor Imster

March 19, 2018

See it! Young moon, Venus, Mercury

Wow! So many of you are catching the moon, Venus and Mercury after sunset. Thank you for all your photos. We wish we could post them all!

Deborah Byrd

March 19, 2018

Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.