CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — moon And Sun highest income share in 2026.
The cosmic wonders of the year begin with the Moon painting the first astronauts to visit Earth in more than 50 years as well as a caravan of robotic lunar rovers, including Jeff Bezos' new enlarged Blue Moon. A supermoon looms on January 3rd, and an astronomical blue moon is expected in May.
The sun will also cause noise in the form of a ring of fire at the bottom of the world in February and a total solar eclipse at the top of the world in August. Expect more auroras in unexpected places, although perhaps not as often as the last couple of years.
Did this comet wander into our territory from another star? Although it can still be seen in high-powered backyard telescopes, recently discovered comet known as 3I/Atlas, has been disappearing every day since it passed Earth in December. Jupiter will be next on your dance chart in March. Once the icy outsider leaves our solar system in ten years, it will return to its place in interstellar space.
This is our third known interstellar visitor. Scientists expect more.
“I can't believe it took this long to find three,” said NASA's Paul Chodas, who has been searching since the 1980s. And with the advent of even more advanced technology, “the chance of catching another interstellar visitor will increase.”
Here's a rundown of what the Universe has in store for us in 2026:
Next stop, Moon
Future NASA commander Reid Wiseman said there is a good chance he and his team will be the first to see large sections of the far side of the Moon that were missed by Apollo astronauts half a century ago. Their observations could be a boon to geologists, he noted, and other experts choosing future landing sites.
Launching earlier this year, three Americans and one Canadian will zip past the moon, turn behind it, and then race back to Earth to complete their 10-day mission. No stops for a lunar walk—the boot prints will be left by the next crew of NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program.
China, as well as American companies, are planning to land more robots on the moon. At the start of the year, Amazon founder Bezos is looking for his rocket company Blue Origin to launch a prototype lunar lander it is designing for NASA astronauts. This Blue Moon demo will be 26 feet (8 meters) tall, taller than what carried the 12 Apollo rovers to the lunar surface. The crew version of Blue Moon will be almost twice as tall.
Returning to another lunar impact, Astrobotic Technology and Intuitive Machines are also planning a scientific equipment landing in 2026. The only private company to land on the Moon, Firefly Aerospace, will set its sights on the far side of the Moon in 2026.
In the new year, China set its sights on the south polar region, sending a rover as well as a so-called bunker to jump into permanently shadowed craters in search of ice.
Eclipses
The cosmos will pull out all the stops with a total solar eclipse on August 12, starting in the Arctic and crossing Greenland, Iceland and Spain. The totality will last two minutes and 18 seconds as the Moon moves directly between the Earth and the Sun to eclipse the latter. In contrast, the total solar eclipse in 2027 will last a whopping 6.5 minutes and will cover more countries.
In 2026, the warm-up will be a fiery eclipse in Antarctica on February 17, when only a few research stations will be in prime viewing positions. There will be partial screenings in South Africa, as well as southern Chile and Argentina. A total lunar eclipse will occur two weeks after February's ring of fire, and a partial lunar eclipse will wrap up at the end of August.
Planet Parade
Around February 28, six of the solar system's eight planets will streak across the sky in a must-see lineup. The nearly full Moon will even come into action, appearing next to Jupiter. Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or telescopes. But Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn should be visible to the naked eye shortly after sunset, weather permitting, although Mercury and Venus will be low on the horizon.
Mars will be the only no-show. The good news is that the Red Planet will join the parade of six planets in August, with Venus abstaining.
Supermoon
Three supermoons will light up the night sky in 2026. It's a stunning result that sees the full moon inches closer to Earth than usual as it spins in a less-than-perfect circle. Looking bigger and brighter, supermoons are a constant crowd-pleaser without requiring any equipment, just your eyes.
The year's first supermoon in January coincides with a meteor shower, but the moonlight will likely outshine the dimmer fireballs. The second supermoon of 2026 will not occur until November 24, and the third – the last and closest supermoon of the year – will occur on the night of December 23-24. The Christmas Eve supermoon will pass within 221,668 miles (356,740 kilometers) of Earth.
Northern and southern lights
In 2026, the Sun is expected to produce new eruptions that could lead to geomagnetic storms here on Earth, resulting in stunning auroras. However, solar activity should begin to wane as the 11-year solar cycle finally winds down.
Space weather forecasters like Rob Steenberg of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are eager to take advantage of all the solar wind measurements that will soon be available from the observatory, which launches in the fall.
“2026 will be an exciting year for space weather enthusiasts,” he said in an email, as this new spacecraft and others will help scientists “better understand our nearest star and predict its impact.”
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