Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Kepler solves star explosion mystery

"When I first saw the Kepler data, my jaw dropped. I said, ‘Oh wow!’"

Deborah Byrd

March 28, 2018

Great Pacific Garbage Patch now 3 times size of France

In 2015, a mega-expedition - 30 vessels simultaneously - crossed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and collected 1.2 million plastic samples. They say the problem is getting worse.

Eleanor Imster

Deborah Byrd

March 27, 2018

A large swath of Texas is heaving and sinking

The oil-rich Permian Basin is having a resurgence in active drilling. Researchers report that, in one place, the ground has shifted 40 inches (about a meter) over the past two-and-a-half years.

Deborah Byrd

Eleanor Imster

March 27, 2018

Why orange snow in Europe?

You've seen the images from last week of Europe's orange snow? It might have baffled skiers, but meteorologists know ... it's really pretty common.

Deborah Byrd

March 26, 2018

Supersonic parachute test off Virginia coast March 27

NASA will provide live coverage of the ASPIRE 2 launch on Tuesday, beginning at 10:15 UTC (6:15 a.m. EDT). Info on how to watch here.

Deborah Byrd

March 26, 2018

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

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.