Sign Up for Our Amazing Newsletter!
A daily update by email. Science news, great photos, sky alerts.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Posts by
Deborah Byrd
New cracks in Pine Island Glacier are getting longer
The new rifts appeared soon after last year’s major calving of iceberg B46, which is about 3 times the size of New York's Manhattan island. Satellite monitoring suggests a new iceberg of similar proportions will soon be calved.
October 21, 2019
Update on the 2nd interstellar visitor
Astronomers in Poland have just published the 1st peer-reviewed paper on the 2nd interstellar visitor, now officially labeled as a comet, 2I/Borisov. Plus check out the new Hubble Space Telescope image of this object.
October 18, 2019
It’s been 20 years since the Day of 6 Billion
Our global human population was estimated to reach 6 billion on today's date in 1999. Eleven years later, in 2011, Earth had gained another billion people. Today - October 12, 2019 - it stands at about 7.7 billion, according to United Nations estimates.
October 12, 2019
Curiosity finds an ancient oasis on Mars
Scientists working with the Curiosity rover have found salt-enriched rock at a place called Sutton Island on Mars. The rocks suggest ponds with briny water on Mars, billions of years ago.
October 9, 2019
Not long ago, the center of our Milky Way galaxy exploded
Researchers have found evidence of a cataclysmic flare that punched outward in both directions from our galaxy's center, reaching so far into intergalactic space that its impact was felt 200,000 light-years away.
October 6, 2019
The violent history of Andromeda, the big galaxy next door
"The Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda in about 4 billion years. So knowing what kind of a monster our galaxy is up against is useful in finding out the Milky Way's ultimate fate."
October 6, 2019
Cosmic web fuels stars and supermassive black holes
Astronomers probed the cosmic web, a large-scale structure composed of massive filaments of galaxies separated by giant voids. They found the filaments also contained significant amounts of gas, believed to help fuel the galaxies' growth.
October 6, 2019
Juno prepares to jump Jupiter’s shadow
NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter has now successfully executed a 10.5-hour propulsive maneuver. It'll keep Juno - a solar-powered spacecraft - out of a mission-ending shadow due to have been cast by Jupiter onto the craft in November.
October 3, 2019
Astronomers spy cosmic bubbles and bow shocks
Professional astronomers and citizen scientists have been combing through a region of our galaxy where cosmic bubbles are being inflated by wind and radiation from young, massive stars. Hundreds to thousands of stars may emerge from each bubble, in time.
October 2, 2019
International Observe the Moon Night is October 5
International Observe the Moon Night is a worldwide celebration of lunar science and exploration, celestial observation, and our cultural and personal connections to the moon. In 2019, it comes on October 5. Here's how to join in.
October 2, 2019
