Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Video: Bill Nye explains Earth flyby of Juno spacecraft

Watch Bill Nye explain why the Juno spacecraft is being routed so close to Earth on October 9, and what the craft will do when it reaches Jupiter in 2016.

Deborah Byrd

October 9, 2013

October leaving

Leaves turn. Birds fly south.

Deborah Byrd

October 9, 2013

Insights from space rocks left after meteor exploded over Russia

Extensive laboratory studies of the Chelyabinsk meteorites revealed traces of ancient space collisions even more violent than the recent encounter with Earth.

Deborah Byrd

October 8, 2013

We are surrounded

Star trails are the continuous paths created by stars, produced in long time-exposure photographs. This composite is made from 350+ images stacked together.

Deborah Byrd

October 8, 2013

Spider web, soybean field, sunrise

Unique perspective on an ordinary spider web, shot on the edge of a soybean field at sunrise.

Deborah Byrd

October 6, 2013

Video: London Zoo’s first tiger cub birth in 17 years

For 105 days, zookeepers monitored Sumatran tiger Melati through hidden cameras installed to keep an eye on her first birth. See the birth on this video.

Deborah Byrd

October 4, 2013

Exoplanet weather: Hot and cloudy, or hot and clear, again

First-ever map of the distribution of clouds on an exoplanet shows what the weather would be like on a light, hot, tidally locked world.

Deborah Byrd

October 3, 2013

Mars orbiter first to capture Comet ISON sweeping past Mars

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, have all tried to image Comet ISON in recent days as it swept past Mars. The orbiter's image is here.

Deborah Byrd

October 2, 2013

As Comet ISON sweeps past Mars October 1, most observations will happen

NASA and ESA announced earlier they were readying a flotilla of spacecraft to record the comet's passage near Mars. How much will the U.S. government shutdown interfere? Not much, it seems.

Deborah Byrd

October 1, 2013

View from space: Earthquake island before and after

“The island is really just a big pile of mud from the seafloor that got pushed up.” - Bill Barnhart, USGS geologist

Deborah Byrd

September 29, 2013

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.