Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Best seat in the world

The central bugle of our Milky Way galaxy shines brightly above the vast ocean of lights of Yaqing Temple in China.

Deborah Byrd

September 21, 2015

Mercury rotates faster than expected

Analysis of data from the MESSENGER spacecraft reveals that, along with the sun, distant Jupiter may be influencing Mercury's orbit and spin.

Deborah Byrd

September 19, 2015

Global ocean on Saturn moon Enceladus

Active water and ice geysers on Enceladus now are believed to spew from a planet-wide, liquid ocean beneath this moon's icy crust.

Deborah Byrd

September 19, 2015

India’s monsoon not bringing enough rain

“Right now, the monsoon is 12 percent below average and dropping, and [India is] headed for a pretty serious dry season,” said a researcher.

Deborah Byrd

September 17, 2015

Video: The solar system to scale

Beautiful short film depicting what happened when a group of friends built a scale model of the solar system on a dry lakebed in Nevada.

Deborah Byrd

September 17, 2015

SOHO discovers its 3000th comet

Before its 1995 launch, no one knew what a spectacular comet finder the SOHO spacecraft would be. It excels at spotting sungrazers, comets sweeping near the sun.

Deborah Byrd

September 17, 2015

Powerful earthquakes off Chile’s coast

At least five people killed and 1 million evacuated, after a powerful 8.3-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile last night. Tsunami waves and many strong aftershocks followed. Tsunami advisory for California and Hawaii.

Deborah Byrd

September 17, 2015

Video: This year’s El Niño compared to 1997-98

Wow! Check out this visual comparison of the emerging El Niño with the record-breaking El Niño of 1997-98, which created weather extremes around the globe.

Deborah Byrd

September 17, 2015

Ancient theater of Aegira, Greece

Settled in the 3rd millennium BCE, Aegira - or Egira - once was a prosperous and important city of ancient Greece.

Deborah Byrd

September 16, 2015

No nearby advanced civilizations, astronomer says

Following the July announcement of a big new SETI initiative, a Netherlands astronomer says advanced civilizations are rare or absent from the local universe.

Deborah Byrd

September 15, 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.