Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Two sweet Indian white-eyes

These birds live in open woodland on the Indian subcontinent. They forage in small groups, feeding on nectar and small insects.

Deborah Byrd

Swami Krishnananda

August 11, 2019

IAU approves 2nd round of names for Pluto features

New Horizons provided close-up images of Pluto in 2015. For many on Earth today, these spacecraft images provide a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse of Pluto. Read about the new Pluto feature names.

Deborah Byrd

August 10, 2019

Hubble’s new portrait of Jupiter

This new Hubble Space Telescope portrait of Jupiter reveals a smaller-than-usual Great Red Spot and an intense color palette in Jupiter's swirling clouds. NASA said, "The colors, and their changes, provide important clues to ongoing processes in Jupiter’s atmosphere."

Deborah Byrd

August 9, 2019

Astronomers map our local cosmic void

Our universe is a tapestry of galaxy congregations and vast voids. An international team of astronomers has now published a new study revealing more of this cosmic structure as it appears surrounding our Milky Way.

Deborah Byrd

August 7, 2019

Rare reflection rainbow over Michigan

Between the usual primary and secondary rainbows, you can see a 3rd bow, caused by sunlight reflecting off the water.

Deborah Byrd

August 2, 2019

Black Moon supermoon on July 31

Don't listen to people who tell you that supermoons are hype. Supermoons aren't hype; they're folklore, like Blue Moons or Black Moons or the beloved Harvest Moons.

Bruce McClure

Deborah Byrd

July 31, 2019

The black hole disk that shouldn’t exist

Astronomers didn't expect to see a thin disk around the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 3147, some 130 million light-years away. They're using Einstein’s theories of relativity to understand the velocities involved, and the intensity of the black hole's pull.

Deborah Byrd

July 27, 2019

Draco, great Dragon of the north

Meet Rastaban and Eltanin - lovely, romantic names for Dragon stars! These 2 stars represent the Eyes of the Dragon.

Deborah Byrd

July 23, 2019

Gaia starts mapping our Milky Way’s bar

"We knew the Milky Way had a bar, like other barred spiral galaxies. But we only had indirect indications from the motions of stars and gas. This is the first time we see the galactic bar in 3D space, based on geometric measurements of stellar distances."

Deborah Byrd

July 21, 2019

Video: Moon hoax not

Don't believe the moon landings were real? Go ahead. Watch this.

Deborah Byrd

July 19, 2019

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.