CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥 The moon and sun share top billing in 2026.
Kicking off the year鈥檚 cosmic wonders is the moon, drawing as well as a caravan of robotic lunar landers including Jeff Bezos鈥 new supersized Blue Moon. A supermoon looms on Jan. 3 and an astronomical blue moon is on the books for May.
The sun will also generate buzz with a ring-of-fire eclipse at the bottom of the world in February and a total solar eclipse at the top of the world in August. Expect in unexpected places, though perhaps not as frequently as the past couple years.
And that comet that strayed into our turf from another star? While still visible with powerful backyard telescopes, known as 3I/Atlas is fading by the day after swinging past Earth in December. Jupiter is next on its dance card in March. Once the icy outsider departs our solar system a decade from now, it will be back where it belongs in interstellar space.
It鈥檚 our third known interstellar visitor. Scientists anticipate more.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe it鈥檚 taken this long to find three,鈥 said NASA鈥檚 Paul Chodas, who鈥檚 been on the lookout since the 1980s. And with ever better technology, 鈥渢he chance of catching another interstellar visitor will increase.鈥
Here鈥檚 a rundown on what the universe has in store for us in 2026:
Next stop, moon
NASA鈥檚 upcoming moonshot commander Reid Wiseman said there鈥檚 a good chance he and his crew will be the first to lay eyeballs on large swaths of the lunar far side that were missed by the Apollo astronauts a half-century ago. Their observations could be a boon for geologists, he noted, and other experts picking future landing sites.
Launching early in the year, the three Americans and one Canadian will zip past the moon, do a U-turn behind it, then hustle straight back to Earth to close out their 10-day mission. No stopping for a moonwalk 鈥 the boot prints will be left by the next crew in NASA鈥檚 Artemis lunar exploration program.
More robotic moon landings are on the books by China as well as U.S. companies. Early in the year, Amazon founder Bezos is looking for his Blue Origin rocket company to launch a prototype of the lunar lander it鈥檚 designing for NASA鈥檚 astronauts. This Blue Moon demo will stand 26 feet (8 meters), taller than what delivered Apollo鈥檚 12 moonwalkers to the lunar surface. The Blue Moon version for crew will be almost double that height.
Back for another stab at the moon, Astrobotic Technology and Intuitive Machines are also targeting 2026 landings with scientific gear. The only private entity to nail a lunar landing, Firefly Aerospace, will aim for the moon鈥檚 far side in 2026.
China is targeting the south polar region in the new year, sending a rover as well as a so-called hopper to jump into permanently shadowed craters in search of ice.
Eclipses
The cosmos pulls out all the stops with a total solar eclipse on Aug. 12 that will begin in the Arctic and cross over Greenland, Iceland and Spain. Totality will last two minutes and 18 seconds as the moon moves directly between Earth and the sun to blot out the latter. By contrast, the total solar eclipse in 2027 will offer a whopping 6 1/2 minutes of totality and pass over more countries.
For 2026, the warm-up act will be a ring-of-fire eclipse in the Antarctic on Feb. 17, with only a few research stations in prime viewing position. South Africa and southernmost Chile and Argentina will have partial viewing. A total lunar eclipse will follow two weeks after February鈥檚 ring of fire, with a partial lunar eclipse closing out the action at the end of August.
Parading planets
Six of the solar system鈥檚 eight planets will prance across the sky in a must-see lineup around Feb. 28. A nearly full moon is even getting into the act, appearing alongside Jupiter. Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or telescopes. But Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn should be visible with the naked eye shortly after sunset, weather permitting, though Mercury and Venus will be low on the horizon.
Mars will be the lone no-show. The good news is that the red planet will join a six-planet parade in August, with Venus the holdout.
Supermoons
Three supermoons will lighten up the night skies in 2026, the stunning result when a full moon inches closer to Earth than usual as it orbits in a not-quite-perfect circle. Appearing bigger and brighter, supermoons are a perennial crowd pleaser requiring no equipment, only your eyes.
The year's first supermoon in January coincides with a meteor shower, but the moonlight likely will obscure the dimmer fireballs. The second supermoon of 2026 won鈥檛 occur until Nov. 24, with the third 鈥 the year鈥檚 final and closest supermoon 鈥 occurring the night of Dec. 23 into Dec. 24. This Christmas Eve supermoon will pass within 221,668 miles (356,740 kilometers) of Earth.
Northern and southern lights
The sun is expected to churn out more eruptions in 2026 that could lead to geomagnetic storms here on Earth, giving rise to stunning aurora. Solar action should start to ease, however, with the 11-year solar cycle finally on the downslide.
Space weather forecasters like Rob Steenburgh at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can鈥檛 wait to tap into all the solar wind measurements coming soon from an observatory launched in the fall.
鈥2026 will be an exciting year for space weather enthusiasts,鈥 he said in an email, with this new spacecraft and others helping scientists 鈥渂etter understand our nearest star and forecast its impacts.鈥
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