Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Watch, as black holes spiral closer

A new simulation by scientists lets you witness supermassive black holes about to collide. One shows them from outside the system, just 40 orbits from merging. The other places you in their midst.

Deborah Byrd

October 6, 2018

Did the Hubble telescope find the 1st exomoon?

Astronomers have tantalizing new evidence for a possible Neptune-sized moon orbiting the gas-giant planet Kepler-1625b, some 8,000 light-years away.

Deborah Byrd

October 4, 2018

MASCOT returns 1st image from asteroid Ryugu

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft deployed the MASCOT lander to asteroid Ryugu yesterday. Now, MASCOT has returned its 1st image. An international team of engineers and scientists in Germany is standing by.

Deborah Byrd

Eddie Irizarry

October 3, 2018

Gaia reveals stars flying between galaxies

Only a small number of hypervelocity stars have ever been discovered. Now ESA's Gaia mission has revealed 20 more.

Deborah Byrd

October 3, 2018

Breakthrough Listen brings ET search to Africa

Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Listen program said it has added the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa to its global effort to listen for signals from an alien intelligence.

Deborah Byrd

October 2, 2018

New image shows a haunting comet landscape

Citizen scientists now frequently explore spacecraft images, finding and processing hidden treasures. Jacint Roger Perez of Spain processed this Rosetta spacecraft view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Deborah Byrd

October 1, 2018

Smoke over Yosemite in September

Last summer's major fires in and around Yosemite National Park in California have been contained, but the U.S. National Park Service reports multiple fires still burning in Yosemite's wilderness.

Deborah Byrd

October 1, 2018

Death toll surges over 800 in Indonesia earthquake

Links to stories and images of the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Indonesia on Friday. By Sunday morning, the death toll had gone over 800, with thousands waiting to be rescued.

Deborah Byrd

September 30, 2018

Matter falling into a black hole at 30% light speed

There may be misaligned disks of material rotating around the black hole. Rings of gas may be breaking off and colliding, leaving gas to fall directly towards the black hole at unfathomable speeds.

Deborah Byrd

September 30, 2018

Scientists spy roving dust storms on Titan

Using data from the Cassini spacecraft, whose mission to Saturn ended a year ago, scientists now say they can see dust storms moving across the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

Deborah Byrd

Eleanor Imster

September 26, 2018

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.