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Posts by
Deborah Byrd
A monster quasar in the early universe
Astronomers just announced the most massive quasar yet known in the early universe. Its monster central black hole has a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion of our suns. The object has been given a Hawaiian name, Poniua'ena.
June 26, 2020
Hummingbirds see colors we can only imagine
"Our experiments enabled us to get a sneak peek into what the world looks like to a hummingbird," one scientist said.
June 23, 2020
June’s old moon and Venus
Here are 2 beautiful images of the very old moon - a waning crescent seen in the east shortly before sunrise - near the brightest planet, Venus.
June 20, 2020
Forecast: Dust and sand from the Sahara
Masses of dusty air form over the Sahara Desert and move westward across the tropical North Atlantic frequently from spring to fall. A particularly large swath of dust is headed our way now. Watch for hazy skies in the Caribbean by this weekend, and possibly into the U.S. by next week.
June 19, 2020
Celebrate solstice sunrise at Stonehenge live online
This year, solstice celebrations at Stonehenge monument are canceled due to Covid-19. But for the 1st time, you can celebrate the 1st sunrise of summer from Stonehenge online.
June 18, 2020
SOHO’s 4,000th comet
This week, a citizen scientist spotted a never-before-seen comet in data from the sun-observing SOHO spacecraft. It was SOHO's 4,000th comet discovery. Learn more and watch comets sweep near the sun in this video.
June 18, 2020
Dance of 3 stars confirms Einstein’s ‘most fortunate thought’
Researchers in Europe have now confirmed the universality of free fall - which Einstein called his most fortunate thought - with extremely high precision. To do it, they spent 8 years tracking a triple star system containing a millisecond pulsar.
June 17, 2020
ESA’s Solar Orbiter made its 1st close approach to the sun on June 15
Solar Orbiter swept as close as 50 million miles (77 million km) to our sun's surface. Now scientists are at work testing the spacecraft’s 10 science instruments, including the 6 telescopes on-board. New images, to be released in mid-July, will be the closest of the sun ever captured.
June 15, 2020
The fire and the fireball
A bright meteor is called a fireball. This one creates a backdrop to clouds of smoke from an actual fire that - as of Saturday - had burned some 9,000 acres and was only 10% contained, according to Inciweb.
June 13, 2020
Scientists to strike on June 10 #ShutDownSTEM #Strike4BlackLives
EarthSky is joining the grassroots effort to #ShutDownSTEM and #Strike4BlackLives on Wednesday, June 10. Thousands of researchers around the world have pledged to pause their work on Wednesday to support the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement and efforts against racism in the scientific community and society at large.
June 10, 2020
