Planet Science

From meteor showers to eclipses, 2026 offers plenty of reasons to look up.

Every year brings its own rhythm to the night sky, but 2026 stands out as a particularly rewarding year for anyone who enjoys looking up. From reliable annual meteor showers to rare eclipses visible from populated parts of the world, the coming year offers a mix of predictable favorites and standout moments that don’t come around often.

Many of these events require no special equipment, just clear skies and a bit of planning. What makes stargazing in 2026 especially appealing is how accessible much of it will be. Several major events align with favorable viewing conditions, and one highly anticipated eclipse will draw global attention.

Whether you’re a casual skywatcher or someone who plans nights around celestial calendars, these are the stargazing moments worth marking ahead of time.

Click through and mark your calendar for some spectacular night sky shows.

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New calculations show the Mars time gap in microseconds and why it matters for future missions.

If you’ve ever joked that you’d like to “age better” on Mars, physics has a weird little twist for you: time really does move faster there. Not in a movie way, and not enough for a human to notice, but enough for spacecraft and future astronauts to care.

In December 2025, research by two physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) calculated the time difference between Mars and Earth with new precision. Their work shows a clock on Mars would tick, on average, 477 microseconds faster per Earth day than a matching clock here.

That number also shifts over the Martian year because Mars travels in a more stretched-out orbit and feels changing gravitational influences. It’s a tiny effect that becomes a big deal when you’re trying to land safely, navigate accurately, and keep a growing network of Mars missions synchronized with Earth.

Click through to see how microseconds can create big consequences.

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A deep underground feature could reveal why this Atlantic island doesn’t behave like others.

Bermuda has long puzzled geologists. Unlike most islands, it doesn’t sit near a tectonic plate boundary, and it isn’t part of a classic volcanic hotspot chain like Hawaii. Yet it rises alone from the Atlantic Ocean, capped with limestone and surrounded by unusually shallow waters. For decades, its origin has been difficult to explain.

New geophysical research is now offering a clearer picture. By analyzing gravity and seismic data, researchers identified a massive, unusually thick structure buried deep beneath Bermuda. This hidden feature appears to act like a geological support system, shaping how the island formed and helping it remain above sea level.

The finding matters because it challenges long-held ideas about island formation. It also sheds light on Bermuda’s unusual landscape and highlights how deep Earth processes can quietly shape the surface world.

Click through to find out what’s going on beneath Bermuda.

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Scientists say a deep underground heat anomaly is slowly shifting beneath the eastern United States.

When headlines talk about a “giant hot blob” moving toward New York City, it’s easy to imagine something dramatic or dangerous. In reality, the discovery comes from careful geological research led by geophysicist Thorsten Becker and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, published in the journal Geology.

Using seismic data from earthquakes around the world, the team identified a massive zone of unusually warm rock deep beneath the eastern United States that appears to be slowly migrating under the Appalachian region. This feature, known as the Northern Appalachian Anomaly, moves at a pace measured in millions of years and sits far below anything humans could ever interact with directly.

It poses no threat to cities or people. Instead, it offers scientists a rare glimpse into how heat moves through Earth’s interior long after continents split apart, and why ancient mountain ranges like the Appalachians still look the way they do today.

Click through to learn what this “anomaly” really is.

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Record rains turned one of the world’s driest places into a temporary ancient lake.

Some places seem permanently locked into extremes, and Death Valley is one of them. Famous for scorching heat and near-constant dryness, it rarely sees enough rain to leave standing water. That’s why scientists were stunned when record-breaking storms flooded the valley floor and briefly revived an ancient lake that last existed during the Ice Age. The reappearance of this prehistoric body of water, known as Lake Manly, offered a rare, fleeting look at Death Valley’s distant past and underscored just how unusual recent weather conditions have been.

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A look at the U.S. states where brutal temperatures, fierce wind chills, and extreme winters are the norm.

The coldest states in the U.S. don’t just dip below freezing—they stay there for long stretches, often facing dangerous wind chills, subzero nights, and snow seasons that last well into spring. Many of these regions sit at high latitudes or elevations where Arctic air routinely settles, creating dramatic winter conditions. From record-shattering lows to months of ice-covered landscapes, these states experience cold on a level most Americans never feel.

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A major new report outlines why a crewed mission to Mars may be more achievable and more urgent than ever.

A major new scientific analysis titled The Rationale for Sending Humans to Mars argues that a crewed mission to the Red Planet may finally be within reach. The report outlines why growing scientific knowledge, new engineering capabilities, and clearer mission strategies make human exploration more realistic than ever before. It also explains how astronauts on Mars could transform our understanding of the planet and of life beyond Earth. For the first time in decades, a human mission to Mars is being presented as a practical goal rather than a distant idea.

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Astronomers detected ultra-fast winds sweeping out of a distant black hole, powerful enough to reshape the entire galaxy.

A distant spiral galaxy may be undergoing a dramatic transformation, and astronomers say a supermassive black hole is responsible. New observations show the black hole at the center of NGC 3783 blasting out ultra-fast winds that reach about 130 million miles per hour, or roughly 20 percent of the speed of light. These winds appeared shortly after an intense burst of X-ray activity, suggesting a rapid and powerful shift near the black hole’s core. Scientists believe this event could reshape the galaxy by disrupting star formation and altering its long-term evolution.

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Satellite imaging is revealing long-buried structures across Egypt—some resembling forgotten pyramids.

Scientists using infrared satellite imaging have uncovered geometric patterns beneath the desert that resemble pyramid foundations, temple complexes, and settlement grids. These findings are grounded in peer-reviewed research and confirmed surveys that have already identified numerous ancient sites. As experts continue analyzing new data from orbit, many believe Egypt may still be hiding monumental structures beneath the sand—remnants of a past that has remained unseen for thousands of years.

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Aviation insiders reveal why unexplained aerial encounters rarely made it into official records.

This is the moment an entire profession decided it could no longer quietly accept silence around unexplained events in the sky. For decades, commercial and military air traffic controllers have reported radar contacts that moved strangely, appeared and vanished quickly, or behaved unlike any known aircraft. Historically, many of these incidents were brushed aside as clutter or interference. Now, with official UAP investigations underway and more witnesses speaking openly, people inside the system are finally explaining how such cases were handled—and what that reveals about safety, secrecy, and accountability.

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