A beautiful sky just after sunset on January 21, 2015! The moon, the bright planet Venus and, for some, the planets Mercury and Mars. Yay! Venus is back.
Cool air on the sea surface strongly refracted the setting sun, seen Saturday night from a small town near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cool series of images!
Dawn spacecraft now closing in on dwarf planet Ceres. Image is for navigation purposes; next one due late January. And what is that white spot, anyway?
Ever-photogenic Comet Lovejoy at its closest to the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades, star cluster. The comet's long blue ion tail stretched back past the cluster.
New calculations by astronomers in Spain and the UK suggest that not one, but two unknown planets might exist in our solar system, beyond Pluto's orbit.
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.