Posts by 

Deborah Byrd

How close to finding alien life?

The search for life beyond Earth has heated up. Here are some of the ways that scientists have been thinking and talking about it, including a definition of new buzzword: biosignatures.

Big Dipper before dawn

In the month of June, the Big Dipper is low in the sky before dawn.

Edgewise view into our Milky Way

Our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which is 100 thousand light-years wide and contains 100 billion stars. Looking into the Milky Way ...

Geomagnetic storm strikes. Awesome auroras!

Storms on the sun sent giant plasma clouds across space, which interacted with Earth's magnetic field. See photos of this week's fabulous displays of auroras.

Geomagnetic storm on its way, June 22 and 23

It's due to arrive sometime today (June 22, 2015). NOAA forecasters estimate a 90% chance of polar geomagnetic storms when the CME arrives. Aurora alert!

All systems go for Europa mission

Jupiter's moon Europa is a promising place to look for life beyond Earth. A new mission to Europa is now moving forward from concept review to development.

Super new views of Saturn’s moon Dione!

The Cassini spacecraft is performing a series of "lasts" over the coming year. This week's sweep past Dione was the second-to-last.

Brightest galaxy and first-generation stars

The newly found galaxy, labelled CR7, is three times brighter than the brightest distant galaxy known up to now. It may contain some of the first stars.

Venus is a crescent now

Venus will pass between the Earth and sun on August 15. So its day side is turning more and more away from us, and Venus appears as a waning crescent.

New Horizons has a cool teaser trailer!

New video captures the excitement of the upcoming July 14 spacecraft encounter with Pluto. The real thing will be better and is just ahead.