Most Notable 2026 Astronomical Events: A Year of Watching the Skies - UNIVERSE

This year will be busy for avid skywatchers, with some incredible opportunities to view meteor showers, planets, and the Moon in the night sky.

In 2026, we will also mark the 20th anniversary of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Observatory. Originally established as an engine test site in 1958, it was converted to a solar observatory in 1968 to study the sun. In 2006, it was transformed into a lunar and meteor observatory, marking the beginning of its modern era. Today, the observatory plays a crucial role in monitoring the Moon for impacts, studying eclipses, tracking comets, and measuring meteoroid production through advanced telescopes and cameras.

So, get ready to watch the skies with us! Here are the top astronomical events happening this year:

• February 28: Planetary Parade

Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter will appear in the sky shortly after sunset on February 28. This artist illustration features those six planets set against a black background.

NASA/Alyssa Lee

On February 28, we will see not one, not two, but six planets in the evening sky. Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter will appear shortly after sunset. Four of those planets will be visible to the unaided eye, weather permitting, but only those with optical assistance will be able to view Uranus and Neptune (Mercury can sometimes be harder to spot, too).

• March 3: Total Lunar Eclipse

This Blood Moon/Lunar Eclipse was captured on March 14th, 2025, seen from Brookpark, OH at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

NASA/Jordan Cochran

In March, a total lunar eclipse will be visible for those in North America – especially for those on the West Coast. This event is for the earlier risers, as it will occur right before sunrise on the 3rd. Lunar eclipses occur when Earth is positioned precisely between the Moon and Sun – shading the Moon in Earth’s shadow.

• May 31: Full Blue Moon

A supermoon rises over Huntsville, Alabama, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Aug. 19.

NASA/Michael DeMocker

A Blue Moon signifies the rare occasion of having a second full moon in one month – hence the phrase “once in a blue Moon”. We will get one of these rare Blue Moons at the end of May – meaning we will have a total of 13 full Moons in 2026. But don’t be fooled by the name – this moon will not actually be blue in color.

• June 8-9: Venus and Jupiter Conjunction

: This image was captured by former astronaut Scott Kelly during his year aboard the International Space Station. From bottom to top we can spot Earth’s Moon, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent of Earth.

NASA/Scott Kelly

We will be treated to another special planetary event this year when the two brightest planets in the sky – Venus and Jupiter – will appear only a pinky finger apart in June. No telescopes will be required for this one!

• August 12-13: Perseids Meteor Shower

A view of the 2023 Perseid meteor shower from the southernmost part of Sequoia National Forest, near Piute Peak.

NASA/Preston Dyches

The best annual meteor shower is ready to put on a show this year. With a New Moon in the sky, we should have excellent viewing opportunities across most of the world – weather permitting.

• December 13-14: Geminids Meteor Shower

An outburst of Perseid meteors lights up the sky in August 2009 in this time-lapse image.

NASA/JPL

Another great annual meteor shower – the Geminids – will also show off for us this year. Step outside right after midnight to catch these famous “green” meteors streak across the sky.

• December 24: Supermoon

A Super Blue Moon rises above the Mississippi River and the Crescent City Connection Bridge in New Orleans, Aug. 30.

NASA/Michael DeMocker

To end the year, we are being treated to a special Christmas Eve Supermoon. A “supermoon” occurs when a full Moon is closest to Earth – making it appear bigger and brighter. So don’t worry kids, Santa will have lots of light to deliver all his toys.

Other 2026 Sky Events

• January 2-3: Quadrantids Meteor Shower
• January 3: Supermoon
• January 10: Jupiter at Opposition
• February 17: Annular Solar Eclipse (Visible in Antarctica)
• March 20: March Equinox
• April 21-22: Lyrids Meteor Shower
• May 5-6: Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower
• June 21: June Solstice
• July 30-31: Southern Delta Aquariids AND alpha Capricornids Meteor Shower
• August 12: Total Solar Eclipse (Visible in Greenland, Iceland, and Spain)
• September 23: September Equinox
• September 25: Neptune at Opposition
• October 4: Saturn at Opposition
• October 7: Draconids Meteor Shower
• October 21-22: Orionids Meteor Shower
• November 4-5: Taurids Meteor Shower
• November 17: Leonids Meteor Shower
• November 24: Supermoon
• November 25: Uranus at Opposition
• December 21: December Solstice
• December 21-22: Ursids Meteor Shower 

Source: Most Notable 2026 Astronomical Events: A Year of Watching the Skies - NASA

Autonomous AI agents developed to detect early signs of cognitive decline - medicalxpress

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team of Mass General Brigham researchers has developed one of the first fully autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of screening for cognitive impairment using routine clinical documentation.

The system, which requires no human intervention or prompting after deployment, achieved 98% specificity in real-world validation testing. Results are published in npj Digital Medicine.

Alongside the publication, the team is releasing Pythia, an open-source tool that enables any health care system or research institution to deploy autonomous prompt optimization for their own AI screening applications.

"We didn't build a single AI model—we built a digital clinical team," said corresponding author Hossein Estiri, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Augmented Intelligence (CLAI) research group and associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. "This AI system includes five specialized agents that critique each other and refine their reasoning, just like clinicians would in a case conference."

Challenges in cognitive impairment detection

Cognitive impairment remains significantly underdiagnosed in routine clinical care, and traditional screening tools and cognitive tests are highly resource-intensive to administer and difficult for patients to access. Yet early detection has become increasingly critical, especially with the recent approval of Alzheimer's disease therapies that are most effective when administered early in the disease.

"By the time many patients receive a formal diagnosis, the optimal treatment window may have closed," said co-lead study author Lidia Moura, MD, Ph.D., MPH, director of Population Health and the Center for Healthcare Intelligence in the Department of Neurology at Mass General Brigham MGB Neurology Department.

How the AI system works

To better capture at-risk patients, the Mass General Brigham team developed an AI system that runs on an open-weight large language model that can be deployed locally within hospital information technology infrastructure. It employs five agents that each serve different functions and work collaboratively to make clinical determinations and refine them to address errors and improve sensitivity and specificity.

These agents operate autonomously in an iterative loop, refining their detection capabilities through structured collaboration until performance targets are met or the system determines it has converged. No patient data are transmitted to external servers or cloud-based AI services.

The study analyzed more than 3,300 clinical notes from 200 anonymized patients at Mass General Brigham. By analyzing clinical notes produced during regular health care visits, this innovative system can turn everyday documentation into a chance to screen for cognitive issues, helping identify patients who might need a formal assessment.

"Clinical notes contain whispers of cognitive decline that busy clinicians can't systematically surface," said Moura. "This system listens at scale."

Performance and limitations of the system

When the AI system and human reviewers disagreed, an independent expert re-evaluated each case. Among the disagreement cases, the expert validated the AI's reasoning 58% of the time—meaning the system was often making sound clinical judgments that initial human review had missed.

"We expected to find AI errors. Instead, we often found the AI was making defensible judgments based on the evidence in the notes," said Estiri.

Analysis of cases in which the AI was incorrect revealed systematic patterns: documentation limitations where cognitive concerns appeared only in problem lists without supporting narrative, and domain knowledge gaps where the system failed to recognize certain clinical indicators. The system excelled with comprehensive clinical narratives but struggled with isolated data lacking context.

Although the system achieved 91% sensitivity under balanced testing, its sensitivity decreased to 62% under real-world conditions (with a prevalence of 33% positive cases), while specificity remained high at 98%. The researchers reported these calibration challenges to provide transparency and guide future efforts to improve clinical reliability.

"We're publishing exactly the areas in which AI struggles," said Estiri. "The field needs to stop hiding these calibration challenges if we want clinical AI to be trusted." 

Provided by Mass General Brigham  

by Mass General Brigham

edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Autonomous AI agents developed to detect early signs of cognitive decline