A Jubilee Year for Sky Gazers: Supermoons, Meteor Showers, and a Lunar Journey
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- It is indeed a real jubilee year for those who like too experience things that happen in the sky, says astrophysicist Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard.
Together with astronomy and space travel agent Anne Mette Sannes, they are ecstatic about the coming astronomy year. It starts with three events on Saturday 3 January.
– There is a super moon, super sun and meteor shower, says Røed Ødegaard.
The case in summary:
* January 3 offers three major events: supermoon, supersun and the Quadrantide meteor shower.
* Northern lights activity will be at its highest for the next two years, with the best period leading up to the vernal equinox.
* A rare planet parade with six planets in a row occurs at the end of February.
* August will be the celestial month of the year with a total solar eclipse, the Perseids (100-120 shooting stars per hour) and an almost total lunar eclipse.
* Between February and April, a manned lunar journey into orbit around the moon is planned in readiness for a landing in 2027.
* Light pollution can make it tough to see certain phenomena from the cities,but solar and lunar eclipses are visible from most places with clear weather.
The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by NRK’s journalists before publication.
5 million kilometers closer to the sun
But back to the three events on January 3. First of all, there will be a super full moon.
- Because both the moon and the earth have elongated orbits around the earth and the sun respectively. So the moon is sometimes much closer to us than usual, and that is the case tomorrow. And then it gets bigger, both in extent and brightness, says Røed Ødegaard.
It is also supersolar on 3 January, i.e. the closest the Earth tends to be to the Sun.
– Then we are 5 million kilometers closer than we are at the beginning of July. And it’s actually noticeable. Then the sun is 3.4 per cent larger in diameter than in the middle of summer, says Røed Ødegaard.
- But it doesn’t get much warmer because of that, Sannes chuckles.
In the evening, it will be possible to see shooting stars from the quadrantide meteor shower.
- Since this year there is a lot of light from the super full moon, many shooting stars will be invisible, but we can expect to see approx. 10 great meteors per hour, says Sannes.
Are you going to see some of the celestial phenomena expected in 2026? 💫
er, yes! Of course I will 🤠
I don’t go out for just that no 🙂↔️
This poll does not show what the population thinks about the question. The result shows what those who have chosen to vote themselves think, and the vote does not have a committee that makes it representative.
August Skies: A Decade’s Solar Eclipse and More
Are you longing for summer? So do those who love the starry sky, as a lot of exciting things will happen in August.
On August 12, you should take a look at our moon. It is indeed the decade’s solar eclipse, which will be total in parts of Europe.
– It is the biggest eclipse we have had in Norway since 20 March 2015. And we will have to wait until 2039 or 2048 to get one to beat it, says Røed Ødegaard.
This is what the solar eclipse looked like from Longyearbyen in 2015. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB
Return to the Moon
Man to the Moon
– We are going back to the moon, fortunately, after all these years, says Sannes.
The last time humans walked on the moon was in 1972. Now, between February and april, a new mission will send people into orbit around the moon.This is a crucial test of NASA’s new SLS system and the Orion spacecraft.
– They will orbit both the Earth and the moon, ensuring everything functions correctly.This prepares the way for the four astronauts scheduled to travel in 2027, explains Sannes.
In 2027, two of those four astronauts will land on the moon’s south pole. The other two will remain in lunar orbit.