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EarthSky
@earthskyscience.bsky.social
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Updates on your cosmos and world.
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earthskyscience.bsky.social
EarthSky friend Stephen Montag in Livingston, New Jersey, caught the #moon and #Jupiter as they appeared near each other in the sky yesterday evening. Thank you, Stephen!

View more images of the moon and Jupiter at buff.ly/BvxgYTF.

Have one of your own to share? buff.ly/cIlyL6T
Glowing moon in hazy slate blue sky, with a star-like dot close to it, above bare branches.
January 4, 2026 at 6:26 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
January babies, the #garnet is your birthstone. Are they always red gemstones? No! Garnets come in a variety of colors. Read more about this beautiful gemstone at buff.ly/D8WSgLo

📸 Moha112100/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Deep red andradite garnet crystal embedded in pale rock, showing multiple sharp crystal faces and internal reflections.
January 4, 2026 at 5:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Enjoy these great snapshots from EarthSky community members around the globe. December’s images included meteors, moon phases and much more!

Watch the video here!
buff.ly/5up4iqr

Do you have a photo to share? Submit it to us!
buff.ly/BxWComW
Deep yellow setting sun over the ocean with visible sunspots.
January 4, 2026 at 5:03 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
What kind of air did #ancientEarth have? Rensselaer Polytechnic Insttitute scientists recovered pristine air 1.4 billion years old inside rock salt crystals. Analysis shows higher oxygen and carbon dioxide levels than they expected. Read more: buff.ly/3xlFbJN

📸 Justin Park/ RPI.
Microscope view of clear cubical crystals, one with a large round bubble inside it.
January 4, 2026 at 4:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
We know about many rocky #exoplanets. If they're like rocky worlds in our solar system, some of them should have atmospheres. Now researchers say they've got the best evidence yet for a lava-covered planet's atmosphere.

Read more: buff.ly/SBDigje

📸 NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Ralf Crawford/ STScI
Part of a planet viewed from space, with glowing, lava-like surface beneath a thin atmosphere.
January 4, 2026 at 4:03 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Tonight, the waning gibbous #moon will lie near bright Jupiter and the twin stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Plus, #Procyon, the Little Dog Star, is nearby. For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide at: buff.ly/cFZ0Lsy

Or watch this video: buff.ly/GEHX2Kn
2 positions of the moon near Jupiter, with Castor, Pollux, and Procyon labeled. Jupiter and the moon are along the slanted green ecliptic line.
January 4, 2026 at 3:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
As darkness falls tonight, the waning gibbous moon will glow close to bright #Jupiter and the twin stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Plus, the brightest star of Canis Minor, Procyon, is nearby. For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide at: buff.ly/cFZ0Lsy
January 4, 2026 at 4:06 AM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Jelieta Walinski at Desert Bloom Observatory in St. David, Arizona, captured the Dolphin Head #nebula late last month. Thank you, Jelieta! See more of December’s best deep-sky pics here: buff.ly/LGYHTa5
Dolphin Head Nebula (Sh2-308) glowing green and red around a massive star in Canis Major.
January 3, 2026 at 5:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Earth’s orbit around the #sun isn’t a circle. Instead, it’s an ellipse. So, it makes sense that Earth has closest and farthest points from the sun each year. For 2026, our closest point comes at 17 UTC today (11 a.m. CST). Read more at: buff.ly/ycjXWf8

📸 Peter Lowenstein.
Sun near horizon showing apparent size difference, photographed during Earth’s perihelion and aphelion.
January 3, 2026 at 4:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Happy #Perihelion! Our closest point to the sun for 2026 comes at 17 UTC today (11 a.m. CST). We’re about 3% closer to the sun - roughly 1.5 million miles (2.5 million km) - than we are during Earth’s aphelion (farthest point) in early July.

Read more at: buff.ly/NMM3QZT

📸 NOAA/ GOES.
January 3, 2026 at 4:18 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Mandy Daniels captured this picture of the almost full #moon yesterday from the UK. Thank you, Mandy!
buff.ly/QXMh1hQ

Have a photo of your own to share? Submit it here!
buff.ly/BxWComW
Full Moon image with inset highlighting the lava-filled Wargentin crater near the Moon’s southern limb.
January 3, 2026 at 4:03 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Tameem Altameemi in the United Arab Emirates captured this image of Lower’s #nebula, also cataloged as Sh2-261. Thank you, Tameem!
buff.ly/2B4TDsS

Have a photo of your own to share? Submit it here!
buff.ly/BxWComW
Lower’s Nebula (Sh2-261) with glowing orange hydrogen surrounding a bright blue stellar core.
January 3, 2026 at 3:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Hi stargazers! Join EarthSky's Marcy Curran in a video preview of the best night #sky sights of January 2026. This month features a #meteor shower and the 1st #supermoon of 2026. Check it out! 🌌🌠🌕🔭

Watch here:
buff.ly/KAjnFi8

📹 EarthSky.org.
January 2, 2026 at 11:27 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
It’s the full #WolfMoon tomorrow at 10:03 UTC on January 3. And it’s a #supermoon. You might see a large-looking #moon low in the sky. It’s the moon illusion that makes the moon look so big. Your brain is playing a trick on you. Has it happened to you? 🌕🔭

buff.ly/Mq4Qu8j

📸 Cecille Kennedy.
Huge, orange full moon occupies almost all the frame. There are spindly evergreen tree tops in the foreground.
January 2, 2026 at 9:00 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
#Venus and #Mars have been drifting closer to the sun from our perspective. The planets are starting to move behind the sun from the point of view of a sun-observing spacecraft, SOHO. ☀️ Venus is in conjunction with the sun on January 6. Mars reaches that point on January 9.

📸 NASA/ SOHO.
January 2, 2026 at 6:26 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Among the more puzzling cosmic phenomena discovered over the past few decades are brief and bright flashes of blue and ultraviolet light. This curious class of objects is known as luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs). Are black holes responsible? 🔭 Read more at: buff.ly/AcgN0rX

📸 NOIRLab.
Deep-space image showing distant galaxies and bright blue cosmic bursts scattered across a dark star field.
January 2, 2026 at 5:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
The 2026 #Quadrantid meteor shower has a narrow peak on January 3-4. The predicted peak from the American Meteor Society is 00:36 UTC on January 4 (6:36 p.m. CST on January 3). 🔭 Find charts and more here: buff.ly/KlHX7lf

📸 Guy Ottewell’s 2026 Astronomical Calendar.
Diagram shows Earth with Sun, Moon, and Quadrantids radiant overhead during the 2026 January meteor peak.
January 2, 2026 at 5:03 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
2026 has 8 #supermoons! In fact, we have 3 full supermoons this year, and there’s 5 new supermoons this year. The year starts out with a full supermoon overnight from January 2-3. 🔭 Read more at: buff.ly/Z26uiFo

📸 Radu Anghel.
2 young girls stand by a tree staring at a bright, full supermoon.
January 2, 2026 at 4:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
The crest of the full #moon falls at 10:03 UTC on January 3. That’s 4:03 a.m. for folks in central North America. So the moon will be at its fullest on the morning of January 3. But it will appear full on both January 2 and 3. 🔭 Read more at: buff.ly/nFVTbc2

And watch a video at: buff.ly/m23iWoG
Chart showing a disk, the full moon. It lies above a large dot, Jupiter, and right of two smaller dots, the stars Castor and Pollux. On the next night, a disk sits between a large dot, Jupiter and a dot, Pollux. Another dot, Castor is above the first.
January 2, 2026 at 4:03 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Maybe you know that full moons look full because we're seeing all of their illuminated, or day, side? And that can happen only when the moon is opposite the sun as seen from Earth. #Jupiter is now nearly opposite the sun now, too. So you'll see it by the moon! 🔭 Read more at: buff.ly/ZsYjzbU
Chart showing an arrow, sunlight, passing a disk, Earth, then passing a dot representing the moon. It continues in the direction towards two small white dots, Castor and Pollux and a large dot, Jupiter.
January 2, 2026 at 3:33 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Multiple blasts of solar material are currently heading to Earth, with glancing blows expected late tonight into tomorrow. And that could mean #auroras! 🔭 Read the sun news at: buff.ly/NMM3QZT

📸 NOAA/ SWPC.
NOAA map shows strong aurora forecast with red and green oval stretching across northern North America.
January 2, 2026 at 3:18 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
The Super Wolf Moon and Jupiter can be seen from Earth tonight and tomorrow. The crest of the #fullmoon falls at 10:03 UTC on January 3. That’s 4:03 a.m. CST Saturday morning for central North America. 🔭

For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide at: buff.ly/cFZ0Lsy
January 2, 2026 at 3:03 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Amrinderjit Singh captured this image in northern India and wrote, "A circle around the tree, and another one in the sky." Thank you, Amrinderjit, and all the best for the new year! And for all in the EarthSky community ... best wishes from our team for #2026! 😍
A lone tree with a rock circle around its base and a sun halo behind it in the sky.
January 1, 2026 at 11:30 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
#Ceres was the 1st #asteroid to be discovered, on January 1, 1801. While scientists used to classify it as an asteroid, it's now known as a dwarf planet. And it revealed many of its secrets to NASA’s Dawn spacecraft from 2015 to 2018. 🛰️🔭

buff.ly/9dHMvBA

📸 NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/ MPS/ DLR/ IDA.
Partial view of a rocky planet with craters. There is a big bright white spot inside a large crater in the middle of the image.
January 1, 2026 at 10:00 PM
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Did you know? Astronomers sort the planets in our solar system into 3 categories: rocky, gas giants and ice giants. #Uranus and #Neptune are the #icegiants. But researchers in Switzerland said that they might really be rock giants instead. 🔭

buff.ly/WDHzhgm

📸 KISS/ C. Carter/ Univ. of Zurich.
2 cutaway views of a bluish planet. One shows a mostly ice interior and the other shows a mostly rock interior.
January 1, 2026 at 6:26 PM