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Posts by
Deborah Byrd
First maps of Charon and Pluto
Many features on Charon informally named from science fiction, particularly Star Trek and Star Wars. Lord of the Rings, Stanley Kubrick also honored.
August 1, 2015
Comet Tempel 1 and Deep Impact
An artist's concept - and a real photo - from the first-ever impact from an earthly space probe onto the surface of a comet.
July 30, 2015
Found! First aurora beyond solar system
Found on a brown dwarf some 18 light-years away, this aurora is 10,000 times more powerful than any astronomers have witnessed before.
July 29, 2015
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
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!
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.
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.
July 27, 2015
