Sync Your Calendar With the Solar System

The New York Times has offered this calendar to readers since 2017. It’s a collection of newsworthy events in spaceflight and astronomy curated by the paper’s journalists.

The entries below these instructions will be updated regularly to adjust dates and revise information in the calendar’s entries. New events will be added and entries will be removed after they conclude or are indefinitely postponed.

The easiest way to use this calendar is to bookmark this page on your web browser and revisit it regularly. Instructions for bookmarking in common web browsers are below.

A second option is to subscribe to the interactive feed that adds the events to your personal digital calendar. Google users can click on this link to subscribe. Apple iCloud and Outlook users may need to copy this URL and paste it into your digital calendar’s “add calendar” field to subscribe.

We won’t save any of your private information if you add this calendar to your device.

Europa Clipper is a major NASA mission headed to Jupiter’s moon, Europa, which has an icy exterior concealing a vast ocean that scientists say may have the right conditions for life. After it arrives at Europa in 2030, the spacecraft will attempt no landing there, but Clipper will study the moon during dozens of flybys. NASA postponed the Oct. 10 launch attempt to Oct. 14 because of Hurricane Milton.

Active from Oct. 2 to Nov. 7. Peak night: Oct. 20 to 21

The Orionids are well-loved by meteor shower aficionados because of the bright, speedy streaks they make near the group of stars known as Orion’s Belt. Like the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which peaked in early May, the Orionids result when Earth passes through debris from Halley’s Comet.

This shower can be seen from both hemispheres. But viewers this year may have trouble spotting some of the fainter streaks because the moon will be over 80 percent full.

Blue Origin, the space company started by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has launched its New Shepard rocket to the edge of space multiple times. But the company has never sent a rocket to orbit. That could change in November with the first flight of New Glenn, a large rocket with a reusable booster stage that will also attempt a landing after its flight.

The vehicle’s first flight had planned to send two small orbiters of the ESCAPADE mission on a journey to Mars, but NASA postponed the mission. Instead of ESCAPADE, New Glenn’s first flight may carry another payload for Blue Origin. We will provide a more precise launch date when Blue Origin announces one.

Active from Nov. 6 to 30. Peak night: Nov. 16 to 17

The Leonids produce some of the fastest meteors each year, at 44 miles per second, with bright, long tails.

Meteors from the Leonids can be spotted in the constellation Leo, and they will be visible from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This year, spotting the Leonids will be difficult because of the nearly full moon.

Active from Dec. 11 to 20. Peak night: Dec. 13 to 14

Caused by debris from an asteroid, the Geminids are one of the strongest and most popular meteor showers each year. This shower is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, but observers south of the Equator can also witness the show.

Like the Leonids last month, the Geminids peak during a nearly full moon, which may wash out the light from fainter streaks in the sky.

It’s the scientific start to winter in the Northern Hemisphere, when this half of the world tilts away from the sun. Read more about the solstice.

Active from Dec. 17 to 26. Peak night: Dec. 21 to 22

A winter solstice light show, meteors from the Ursids appear near the Little Dipper, which is part of the constellation Ursa Minor.

Only skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere will have a chance of seeing this shower. The moon will be half full, making streaks in the sky even more challenging to spot.

In what could be the first private mission to another planet, the company Rocket Lab is sending a Photon spacecraft toward Venus, where it will fire a small probe to briefly study the toxic world’s atmosphere.

Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can only observe a fraction of astronomical phenomena with your naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them.

Where meteor showers come from

There is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Meteor showers occur around the same time every year and can last for days or weeks. But there is only a small window when each shower is at its peak, which happens when Earth reaches the densest part of the cosmic debris. The peak is the best time to look for a shower. From our point of view on Earth, the meteors will appear to come from the same point in the sky.

The Perseid meteor shower, for example, peaks in mid-August from the constellation Perseus. The Geminids, which occur every December, radiate from the constellation Gemini.

The vernal equinox is one of two points in Earth’s orbit where the sun creates equal periods of daytime and nighttime across the globe. Many people mark it as the first day of the spring. In 2024, it begins Tuesday evening in American time zones but on March 20 in coordinated universal time. See what it looks like from space.