Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Solar halo over Sweden

Halos are a sign of high thin cirrus clouds drifting high above our heads. The clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals, which both refract (split) and also reflect sunlight.

Deborah Byrd

July 29, 2015

New names and insights about Ceres

The Dawn spacecraft is now moving to its third mapping orbit. Nothing new on the bright spots yet, but the crater that contains them has a new name: Occator.

Deborah Byrd

July 28, 2015

Powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocks Indonesia

It struck in Indonesia early today. One person dead. Buildings damaged. No tsunami warning issued. This quake follows a strong earthquake in Alaska yesterday.

Deborah Byrd

July 28, 2015

Bright basin on Tethys

After so many amazing images of Pluto and Charon, it's time to remember some other fascinating worlds within our solar system. Here is Saturn's moon, Tethys ...

Deborah Byrd

July 28, 2015

Tiny, but still densest known galaxies

Smaller in width than our Milky Way, their stars are packed 10,000 to a million times more densely than in our sun's neighborhood. Imagine the night sky!

Deborah Byrd

July 27, 2015

6.9-magnitude strikes Alaska’s Aleutian Islands

This region is on the Pacific Ocean's 'ring of fire' - where great land plates meet and one dives beneath another - and so is subject to frequent earthquakes.

Deborah Byrd

July 27, 2015

Latest images of Pluto’s flowing ice

Latest images from NASA's July 14, 2015 flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, showing evidence of an active surface on Pluto with flowing nitrogen ice.

Andrew R. Brown

Deborah Byrd

July 27, 2015

Infographic: Pluto!

Pluto info at a glance, from our friends at space-facts.com.

Deborah Byrd

July 27, 2015

Pulsar punches hole in stellar disk

Two stars in a double system are not playing nice. One star, a pulsar, has punched a hole in the disk of the other, sending debris outward at 7% of light speed!

Deborah Byrd

July 26, 2015

Best photos of the comet

Comet C/2014 Q1 (PANSTARRS) is easiest to catch in binoculars from Earth's Southern Hemisphere. Many have captured dazzling photos of the comet.

Deborah Byrd

July 24, 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.