Posts by 

Deborah Byrd

Most detailed color images of Saturn’s rings, ever

As we prepare to say goodbye to Cassini at Saturn - one of the longest-running and most awesome space missions ever - here's yet another first, a finely seen section of Saturn's inner-central B Ring, in natural color.

Ultraviolet light key to life search, too?

Too little UV light, and life might not ever start. Too much, in the form dramatic UV flares from stars, and the atmospheres of orbiting planets might undergo damage.

X-ray astronomy and planet-hosting stars

X-ray astronomers explored how quickly young stars settle down after blasting the space around themselves - including any possible planets - with energetic radiation.

What drives Jupiter’s brightest auroras?

The sun drives Earth's auroras. But Jupiter’s brightest auroras may be accelerated by processes within the giant planet's own magnetic field.

Thursday night was fantastic for auroras

Space weather forecasters predicted the possibility of strong geomagnetic storms, resulting in a strong display of the aurora borealis, or northern lights … and they were right!

Asteroid 3122 Florence: Video and images

This large asteroid swept closest to Earth on September 1. It's big enough that astronomers are still catching it in small telescopes, as a small, slow-moving “star.”

Giant sunspots, solar flares, aurora alert!

Sunwatchers are still tracking those 2 large sunspot groups making their way across the Earth-facing side of the sun. Then yesterday there was an X-flare! Watch for possible auroras.

See an extra-red moon or sun this week?

If you live in the U.S. or Canada, a peculiarly red moon - or very spectacular sunrise or sunset - might be due to smoke from wildfires. Click in for images from Earth and space.

How many house-sized NEOs?

A new study shows house-sized NEOs - Near-Earth Objects - to be 10 times fewer than studies had indicated. Still, there are some 3.5 million NEOs larger than 10 meters across.

Millions of stars

This image sequence from ESA's billion-star surveyor - Gaia - looks toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy and captures some 2.8 million stars.