Posts by

Deborah Byrd

SOHO’s thousands of doomed comets

SOHO - Solar and Heliospheric Observatory - is the greatest comet-discoverer of all time. It has found 3,000 comets ... but our sun has destroyed nearly all of them.

Deborah Byrd

October 27, 2015

7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes Afghanistan

Hundreds reported dead, with the death toll set to rise. The most severely affected areas are remote. As of late Monday, communications were cut off.

Deborah Byrd

October 26, 2015

Milky Way photo with 46 billion pixels

It's the largest astronomical image of all time, used by astronomers in the search for distant exoplanets and multiple star systems.

Deborah Byrd

October 25, 2015

New Hubble views of earliest galaxies

The largest sample yet of the faintest and earliest known galaxies in the universe, revealed by Hubble. Some formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang.

Deborah Byrd

October 25, 2015

2015 Antarctic sea ice extent

For the past three years, Antarctic sea ice at maximum set records. This year, that didn't happen, and a sea ice scientist called it "a return toward normalcy."

Deborah Byrd

October 22, 2015

Hottest, heaviest touching double star

Astronomers say the two stars might be heading for catastrophe. They will likely either merge to create a single giant star or form a double black hole.

Deborah Byrd

October 21, 2015

A possible – not likely – alien megastructure

KIC 8462852 is an oddly dimming star - 1,500 light-years away. It might or might not be surrounded by vast megastructures in space, built by aliens.

Deborah Byrd

October 20, 2015

Best photos: This weekend’s planets before dawn

Venus is the brightest one up before dawn, but Mars and Jupiter were closer on Saturday than they will be again until 2018. Plus many people caught Mercury!

Deborah Byrd

October 18, 2015

Is this region empty of stars?

Meet the Coalsack Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas in space - birthplace for new stars. In millions of years, the Coalsack's stars will light up and shine brightly.

Deborah Byrd

October 17, 2015

Close encounters with Enceladus begin today

The flybys are part of a series of "lasts" for Cassini, whose mission to Saturn ends next year. Last chance for many years to see new up-close views of this fascinating, geologically active Saturn moon.

Deborah Byrd

October 14, 2015

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.