Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Night basketball

As we shift into spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are beckoning!

Deborah Byrd

March 20, 2019

Hyper-runaway star fled Milky Way disk

University of Michigan astronomers say a hyper-runaway star didn't originate from the galaxy's center, as previously believed. Instead, they say, a cluster of young stars booted it from the galaxy's disk.

Deborah Byrd

March 15, 2019

See the Opportunity rover’s last image

Opportunity - nicknamed "Oppy" - was active on Mars from 2004 until June, 2018, when a planet-wide dust storm covered it. Its final image is a panorama, acquired from Opportunity's final resting place in Mars' Perseverance Valley.

Deborah Byrd

March 15, 2019

Astronomers probe a baby star’s mystery gas flows

They used the ALMA telescope to observe a slow outflow and a high speed jet from a newly forming star. These two streams appear misaligned and were apparently launched from different parts of the star-forming disk.

Deborah Byrd

March 12, 2019

How Hubble and Gaia weighed the Milky Way

Scientists used the measured velocities of 44 globular star clusters to measure the mass of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

Deborah Byrd

March 11, 2019

Snow roller in New Hampshire

Have you ever heard of snow rollers? We hadn't either. They're like the snowballs people roll to make snowmen. But, instead of people, nature rolls them.

Deborah Byrd

March 8, 2019

Virga and cloud shadows over Africa

Virga is rain that falls but doesn't reach the ground. It helped create this spectacular scene over Mutare, Zimbabwe, on March 5, 2019.

Deborah Byrd

March 6, 2019

One of the last Iridium flares

Only a few of the original, sometimes-glinting Iridium satellites are still in low Earth orbit. They have 3 reflective panels that occasionally catch the sun and produce a visible flare lasting between 5 and 20 seconds.

Deborah Byrd

March 5, 2019

Asteroids are harder to destroy than we thought

What if we learned an asteroid was headed toward Earth? How much energy does it take to destroy an asteroid and break it into pieces? More than we thought, it turns out.

Deborah Byrd

March 4, 2019

North Star over New Mexico

Polaris - aka the North Star - is in the center of the great turning wheel of stars in this photo. It's the star around which the entire northern sky appears to turn.

Deborah Byrd

March 4, 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.