Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Unusual rainbow over Spain

Remember the quadruple rainbow image that went viral last month? Here's an even more unusual rainbow, caused by the wave nature of light.

Deborah Byrd

May 12, 2015

Closest look yet at Ceres’ bright spots

Mysterious Spot 5 - most prominent of Ceres' bright spots - is shown to consist of many smaller spots in a new image from the orbiting Dawn spacecraft.

Deborah Byrd

May 11, 2015

Amazing timelapse of volcanic sunset in Zimbabwe

Last night's sunset in Zimbabwe - May 10, 2015 - made spectacular by volcanic aerosols carried across the Atlantic from Chile's Calbuco volcano.

Peter Lowenstein

Deborah Byrd

May 11, 2015

Proposal to find and zap space debris

Tiny debris particles cause wear and tear on active satellites. A team wants to find it and zap it with a laser to cause its fall back into Earth's atmosphere.

Deborah Byrd

May 11, 2015

Eta Aquarid meteors from Atacama desert

The 2015 Eta Aquarid meteor shower was drowned in bright moonlight. Still, Yuri Beletsky in Chile captured enough meteors to create this beautiful composite.

Deborah Byrd

May 11, 2015

Large sunspot group AR 2339

After a period of few to no spots, a large sunspot group emerged on May 5. It has already produced an X-flare!

Deborah Byrd

May 10, 2015

Geysers on Enceladus: Curtains not jets

Researchers thought Saturn's moon Enceladus had jet-like geysers. But the jets may be optical illusions, caused by looking through a "fold" in curtain-like geysers.

Deborah Byrd

May 9, 2015

Doomed Russian spacecraft burns up over Pacific

Roscosmos said the craft "ceased to exist" over the Pacific. The final time of reentry is 9:20 p.m. CDT (02:20 UTC), with an accuracy of plus or minus 1 minute.

Eddie Irizarry

Deborah Byrd

May 8, 2015

Mammatus clouds at sunset, over Idaho

Mammatus clouds can appear ominous. But, in a way that’s so common in nature, their dangerous aspect goes hand in hand with a magnificent beauty.

Deborah Byrd

May 8, 2015

Sun and moon halo

Composite image of a halo around the sun and, within 10 hours, a nearly full moon.

Deborah Byrd

May 7, 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.