Posts by

Deborah Byrd

View from space: Aurora stretching across Quebec and Ontario on October 8

Orbiting satellite acquired view of an aurora, seen from above, on October 8, 2012. These northern lights resulted from a storm on the sun several days earlier.

Deborah Byrd

October 10, 2012

Tibetan Buddhist statue carved from iron meteorite

Scientists at University of Stuttgart found that a Buddhist statue known as Iron Man has geochemistry matching the 15,000-year-old Chinga meteorite.

Deborah Byrd

October 9, 2012

Photos from friends: Beautiful auroras on October 8-9, 2012

CME that left sun on October 4, 2012 interacted with Earth's magnetic field, causing beautiful displays of the aurora, or northern lights, on night of October 8-9.

Deborah Byrd

October 9, 2012

New Symphony of Science video on climate change

If you don’t think global warming is real, or dislike autotune, this isn't for you. As for me ... I love it. We can change the world!

Deborah Byrd

October 6, 2012

Satellite detects new black hole in our galaxy

The video in this post shows how NASA's Swift satellite made the discovery of a new black hole in our Milky Way, one of only about a dozen known.

Deborah Byrd

October 6, 2012

Brightest biological substance reveals its secret

The cells of an African fruit have walls made of tightly coiled cellulose strands that are excellent for reflecting light.

Deborah Byrd

October 3, 2012

October 1, 2012 geomagnetic storm now subsiding

A coronal mass ejection, or CME, from the sun caused Earth to experience a geomagnetic storm in the early morning hours of October 1, 2012.

Deborah Byrd

October 1, 2012

If I had a boat, I’d sail Titan’s seas

On September 27, 2012, Spanish engineers presenting to the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid proposed to send a boat to Titan.

Deborah Byrd

September 30, 2012

Hot-gas halo surrounds our Milky Way, scientists say

NASA scientists estimate the mass of the hot-gas halo to be comparable to the mass of all the billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

Deborah Byrd

September 25, 2012

Solar storms can cause power grids to fail at lower latitudes

A solar storm caused a power failure in Quebec in 1989. Another solar flare apparently caused a power failure in New Zealand in 2001.

Deborah Byrd

September 24, 2012

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.