Here's your 2025 guide to the night sky and other celestial wow moments

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Here's your 2025 guide to the night sky and other celestial wow moments

2025-01-01 22:00 Last Updated At：22:11

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The new year will bring a pair of lunar eclipses, but don’t expect any sun-disappearing acts like the one that mesmerized North America last spring.

While the world will have to wait until 2026 for the next total solar eclipse, the cosmos promises plenty of other wow moments in 2025. It’s kicking off the year with a six-planet parade in January that will be visible for weeks. Little Mercury will join the crowd for a seven-planet lineup in February.

Five planets already are scattered across the sky — all but Mars and Mercury — though binoculars or telescopes are needed to spot some of them just after sunset.

“People should go out and see them sometime during the next many weeks. I certainly will,” said the Planetary Society’s chief scientist Bruce Betts.

Here's a sneak peek of what's ahead:

The moon will vanish for more than an hour over North and South America on March 14, followed two weeks later by a partial solar eclipse visible from Maine, eastern Canada, Greenland, Europe, Siberia and northwestern Africa.

The cosmic double-header will repeat in September with an even longer total lunar eclipse over Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, and a partial solar eclipse two weeks later near the bottom of the world.

Three supermoons are on tap this year in October, November and December.

The full moon will look particularly big and bright those three months as it orbits closer to Earth than usual.

November's supermoon will come closest, passing within 221,817 miles (356,980 kilometers). Last year featured four supermoons, wrapping up in November.

Six of our seven neighboring planets will line up in the sky to form a long arc around mid-January. All but Neptune and Uranus should be visible with the naked eye just after sunset, weather permitting.

The parade will continue for weeks, with some of the planets occasionally snuggling up. Mercury will make a cameo appearance by the end of February. The planets will gradually exit, one by one, through spring.

The sun burped big time last year, painting the sky with gorgeous auroras in unexpected places.

Space weather forecasters anticipate more geomagnetic storms that could yield even more northern and southern lights.

That’s because the sun has reached its solar maximum during its current 11-year cycle that could continue through this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Shawn Dahl urges everyone to stay on top of space weather news, so as not to miss any pop-up, razzle-dazzle shows.

The Perseids and Geminids are perennial crowd-pleasers, peaking in August and December, respectively. But don’t count out the smaller, less dramatic meteor showers like the Lyrids in April, the Orionids in October and the Leonids in November.

The darker the locale and dimmer the moon, the better it will be for viewing. Meteor showers are generally named for the constellation in which they appear to originate. They occur whenever Earth plows through streams of debris left behind by comets and sometimes asteroids.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Bumrah sidelined but India builds 145-run lead after wild Day 2 of 5th test against Australia

2025-01-04 16:04 Last Updated At：16:11

SYDNEY (AP) — Rishabh Pant's blistering counterattack capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final test between Australia and India where 15 wickets fell on Saturday and the star bowler of the series left the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort.

Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining.

“Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.”

Australia was bowled out for 181, giving India a four-run lead on the first innings, and could not take advantage of India captain Jasprit Bumrah leaving the SCG for medical scans for back spasms. Bumrah later returned to the SCG but there was no confirmation on whether the star bowler would be able to bowl in the remainder of the test — or bat in India's second innings.

Beau Webster top-scored for the hosts with 57 and a wicket in a bright debut, while Steve Smith narrowly fell short of bringing up 10,000 career test runs in front of his home crowd.

Pant then lit up the SCG with a swashbuckling 61 off 33 balls with six boundaries and four sixes to leave the match evenly poised after the end of just the second day.

“If I was sitting at home and watching (it), I would have loved it and, and to be able to (watch) it from the ground, I mean there's nothing like it,” said Prasidh Krishna.

“I know it’s, it’s a lot of risk, but then that’s the way the game is played today.”

At stumps, Jadeja was eight not out and Washington Sundar was unbeaten on six.

Scott Boland backed up his four wickets in India's first innings with four more on Saturday.

First, he bowled two near-unplayable deliveries to bowl opening pair KL Rahul (13) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (22).

Boland (4-42) followed that up by yet again tempting Virat Kohli outside off stump which the veteran guided straight to Smith at slip in what may be the 36-year-old Kohli's final test innings in Australia.

“Every time he plays, he does the job well,” McDonald said of Boland. “His ability just to be relentless on a length, move the ball both ways is, yeah, it’s proving difficult, in particular on the surface back over to the left.”

Webster (1-24) chalked up his first test wicket, having Shubman Gill (13) caught behind after a wild swipe.

Earlier, Australia conceded a four-run deficit as it was bowled out at tea.

Steve Smith (33) and Webster appeared to have stabilized the host's innings after its top order was toppled in quick time by Bumrah (2-33) and Mohammad Siraj (3-51).

Bumrah took Labuschagne to go with Khawaja's wicket and took his overall series tally to 32 wickets, the highest ever by an Indian bowler in a single series in Australia, passing spinner Bishan Singh Bedi’s 31 during the 1977-78 series.

Australia leads the series 2-1 and must avoid defeat to regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time since 2014-15. A win by India and a drawn series at 2-2 would allow the visitors to retain the trophy for a record-extending fifth consecutive time.

A win for Australia at the SCG would book the team’s spot in a second straight World Test Championship final where it would play the already-qualified South Africa at Lord’s in June.

Former India Rohit Sharma has hit back at suggestions he was dropped from the team ahead of the decisive 5th test, saying he made the decision to stand down.

The 37-year-old Sharma said that he had initiated the conversation with selectors.

“I had a chat with the coach and the selector was very simple,” Rohit said on India's Star Sports. “I am not making runs at the moment. I am not in form and it’s an important game. We need an in-form player.

“This was the simple thing in my mind. It was my understanding that I should tell the coach and the selector and they backed my call.”

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket