Posts by

Deborah Byrd

How massive can neutron stars be?

Settling a long debate, astrophysicists at Goethe University Frankfurt now say neutron stars can't exceed the mass of 2.16 suns.

Deborah Byrd

January 18, 2018

Supercomputer insights on mysterious black hole jets

Scientists used the Blue Waters supercomputer to show that a black hole's relativistic jets and accretion disk both may be spinning - and precessing over time - around an axis separate from the black hole itself.

Deborah Byrd

January 17, 2018

Zooming star points to black hole in globular star cluster

Globular star clusters contain our galaxy's most ancient stars. Astronomers didn't expect to find a 4-solar-mass black hole in one, but ... voila!

Deborah Byrd

January 17, 2018

Best photos: Morning planets!

On Sunday morning, Jupiter and Mars were half a moon-diameter apart. Now the moon is sweeping past. Plus Mercury and Saturn are in conjunction this weekend. Photos here.

Deborah Byrd

January 15, 2018

Our Milky Way as a “melting pot”

Where do stars we see at night come from? Newly confirmed streams of stars - thought to be coming to our Milky Way from other galaxies - suggest not all Milky Way stars were born here.

Deborah Byrd

January 14, 2018

Astronomers detect whirlpool movement in earliest galaxies

Astronomers looked back to a time only 800 million years after the Big Bang and found whirlpool shapes in small, very young galaxies.

Deborah Byrd

January 14, 2018

A 3D journey through the Orion Nebula

Astronomers and visualization specialists at NASA have just released this unprecedented, 3-dimensional, fly-through view of the Orion Nebula, a nearby star-forming region.

Deborah Byrd

January 12, 2018

Fast radio bursts: A mystery unfolds

Repeating, short, unpredictable radio bursts left astronomers perplexed. Now they think the bursts were twisted by the extreme environment around a supernova or supermassive black hole.

Deborah Byrd

January 10, 2018

What was that bright flash over Russia?

A flash seen over a wide swath of Russia on January 7 at first caused fears of a U.S. air strike on North Korea. For now, the flash is unexplained.

Deborah Byrd

January 10, 2018

Sun pillar at Frankfort Lighthouse

You might see a sun pillar - or light pillar - extending upward (or downward) from a bright light source. They're caused by ice crystals drifting in Earth's air.

Deborah Byrd

January 10, 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.