A gleaming Jupiter at opposition (to the sun), rare occultations of the bright star Regulus by the moon, and an opportunity to see the distant planet Uranus are among the U.S.-based skywatching highlights of 2026, writes astronomer and Scientific American columnist Phil Plait. Other key moments include a total lunar eclipse in early March, the moon passing in May less than three degrees from Venus, and Venus and Jupiter appearing just 1.5 degrees apart in the sky on June 9. You’re probably anticipating the August 12 total solar eclipse too (see travel ad below), casting a shadow path from Greenland to Spain. It can’t be seen in the U.S., but a partial solar eclipse will be visible in Maine.

Underground fiber-optic cables that carry Internet traffic are so sensitive that they can be used to detect and track earthquakes in better detail than seismographs can, a new study shows. Tiny ground vibrations and changes in pressure and temperature can affect the flow of light through these cables. In the recently published experiment, 15 kilometers of telecom fiber near Mendocino, Calif., recorded a magnitude 7 rupture, the region’s biggest quake in five years. The data allowed researchers to track the initiation and progression of tremors to an unprecedented degree of detail.