By MARCIA DUNN, Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The moon and sun share top billing in 2026.

Kicking off the year’s cosmic wonders is the moon, drawing the first astronauts to visit in more than 50 years as well as a caravan of robotic lunar landers including Jeff Bezos’ new supersized Blue Moon. A supermoon looms on Jan. 3 and an astronomical blue moon is on the books for May.

The sun will also generate buzz with a ring-of-fire eclipse at the bottom of the world in February and a total solar eclipse at the top of the world in August. Expect more auroras in unexpected places, though perhaps not as frequently as the past couple years.

And that comet that strayed into our turf from another star? While still visible with powerful backyard telescopes, the recently discovered comet known as 3I/Atlas is fading by the day after swinging past Earth in December. Jupiter is next on its dance card in March. Once the icy outsider departs our solar system a decade from now, it will be back where it belongs in interstellar space.

FILE – This photo provided by Gianluca Masi shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas as it streaks through space, 190 million miles from Earth, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, seen from Manciano, Italy. (Gianluca Masi via AP, File)

It’s our third known interstellar visitor. Scientists anticipate more.

“I can’t believe it’s taken this long to find three,” said NASA’s Paul Chodas, who’s been on the lookout since the 1980s. And with ever better technology, “the chance of catching another interstellar visitor will increase.”

Here’s a rundown on what the universe has in store for us in 2026:

Next stop, moon

NASA’s upcoming moonshot commander Reid Wiseman said there’s a good chance he and his crew will be the first to lay eyeballs on large swaths of the lunar far side that were missed by the Apollo astronauts a half-century ago. Their observations could be a boon for geologists, he noted, and other experts picking future landing sites.

Launching early in the year, the three Americans and one Canadian will zip past the moon, do a U-turn behind it, then hustle straight back to Earth to close out their 10-day mission. No stopping for a moonwalk — the boot prints will be left by the next crew in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program.

FILE – In this photo provided by NASA, Artemis II crew members, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch, stand together at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in front of an Orion crew module on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. (Kim Shiflett/NASA via AP, File)

More robotic moon landings are on the books by China as well as U.S. companies. Early in the year, Amazon founder Bezos is looking for his Blue Origin rocket company to launch a prototype of the lunar lander it’s designing for NASA’s astronauts. This Blue Moon demo will stand 26 feet, taller than what delivered Apollo’s 12 moonwalkers to the lunar surface. The Blue Moon version for crew will be almost double that height.

This illustration provided by Blue Origin depicts the company’s Blue Moon MK1 spacecraft on the surface of the moon. (Blue Origin via AP)

Back for another stab at the moon, Astrobotic Technology and Intuitive Machines are also targeting 2026 landings with scientific gear. The only private entity to nail a lunar landing, Firefly Aerospace, will aim for the moon’s far side in 2026.

China is targeting the south polar region in the new year, sending a rover as well as a so-called hopper to jump into permanently shadowed craters in search of ice.

Eclipses

The cosmos pulls out all the stops with a total solar eclipse on Aug. 12 that will begin in the Arctic and cross over Greenland, Iceland and Spain. Totality will last two minutes and 18 seconds as the moon moves directly between Earth and the sun to blot out the latter. By contrast, the total solar eclipse in 2027 will offer a whopping 6 1/2 minutes of totality and pass over more countries.

FILE – The moon moves across the sun during a “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse seen from Tahai, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File)

For 2026, the warm-up act will be a ring-of-fire eclipse in the Antarctic on Feb. 17, with only a few research stations in prime viewing position. South Africa and southernmost Chile and Argentina will have partial viewing. A total lunar eclipse will follow two weeks after February’s ring of fire, with a partial lunar eclipse closing out the action at the end of August.

Parading planets

Six of the solar system’s eight planets will prance across the sky in a must-see lineup around Feb. 28. A nearly full moon is even getting into the act, appearing alongside Jupiter. Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or telescopes. But Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn should be visible with the naked eye shortly after sunset, weather permitting, though Mercury and Venus will be low on the horizon.

Mars will be the lone no-show. The good news is that the red planet will join a six-planet parade in August, with Venus the holdout.

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Supermoons

Three supermoons will lighten up the night skies in 2026, the stunning result when a full moon inches closer to Earth than usual as it orbits in a not-quite-perfect circle. Appearing bigger and brighter, supermoons are a perennial crowd pleaser requiring no equipment, only your eyes.

The year’s first supermoon in January coincides with a meteor shower, but the moonlight likely will obscure the dimmer fireballs. The second supermoon of 2026 won’t occur until Nov. 24, with the third — the year’s final and closest supermoon — occurring the night of Dec. 23 into Dec. 24. This Christmas Eve supermoon will pass within 221,668 miles of Earth.

Northern and southern lights

The sun is expected to churn out more eruptions in 2026 that could lead to geomagnetic storms here on Earth, giving rise to stunning aurora. Solar action should start to ease, however, with the 11-year solar cycle finally on the downslide.

Space weather forecasters like Rob Steenburgh at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can’t wait to tap into all the solar wind measurements coming soon from an observatory launched in the fall.

“2026 will be an exciting year for space weather enthusiasts,” he said in an email, with this new spacecraft and others helping scientists “better understand our nearest star and forecast its impacts.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The last time the IIHF held the World Junior Championship in the Twin Cities, Bob Motzko could have played in it. He was 20 around this time of year as 1981 was turning to 1982, and the world’s best young hockey players were battling at rinks in the metro area, in Rochester and elsewhere around the state.

He’s 64 today, and in his third stint as head coach for Team USA, with the honor and the pressure of trying to win a third consecutive gold medal, this time on home ice with the tournament being played in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In an exclusive interview with the Pioneer Press as his team was prepping for Monday night’s game with Slovakia, Motzko said the biggest change from 2018, when he coached the Americans to a bronze medal at the World Juniors held in Buffalo, N.Y., is the depth and talent among all 10 teams that have come to Minnesota to determine the next world champion.

“The depth of the teams in the tournament seems to be amazing,” Motzko said. “You saw Latvia and Canada in a tight game, and Latvia beat Canada last year. There are a lot of good hockey players in the world right now.”

A decade ago or so, World Juniors was considered to be a de facto five-team tournament, with the gold medal realistically up for grabs among the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden and Russia. Since the start of their war with Ukraine, Russian teams have been banned from international competition, and while Canada and the U.S. have claimed the past six gold medals, other national teams are joining the fray.

After beating Switzerland 2-1 in their second game of the tournament, the Americans raved at how quickly the Swiss are ramping up their hockey development.

Motzko noted that the American men needed overtime to beat Switzerland 1-0 for gold at last spring’s IIHF World Championship, and Germany gave Team USA all it could handle in the World Juniors opener.

Motzko has joked in the past that the IIHF will need to erect a statue of Steve Miller at some point in honor of his life-long contributions to World Juniors. Miller, who is Motzko’s top assistant with the Gophers, has been an assistant for the Americans in nine of the past 10 tournaments, bringing home four gold medals, a silver and a bronze in that stretch.

“He’s an encyclopedia. He remembers everything in the tournament, moments in the tournament, things that are going to come up. He just has information that’s so valuable in so many situations,” Motzko said. “There’s a reason every coach keeps having him on their staff, and I don’t think anyone should ever stop unless he gets tired and wants a break to hang out with his family at Christmas. He’s got a skill set that really pays great dividends for me at Minnesota and everywhere he has been.”

For Motzko, Miller and the other coaches, their nine-day training camp in Duluth, and the early games of the tournament have been an exercise in building cohesiveness among two-dozen of the nation’s top players in their age group, many of whom are on-ice rivals before and after World Juniors.

Some of the in-game challenges in the Americans’ first two wins are attributed to the notion of all-star teams, and the work needed to bring them together to work toward a common goal.

“Most of these kids know each other and have played together from that standpoint of camaraderie and coming together,” Motzko said. “But you’ve got guys that a lot of them have played the same roles on their teams, and they can’t all play the same role when you put them all together. These are smart athletes. They understand the responsibility of the roles they’re going to take.”

Perhaps the biggest understanding comes from talented players trying to do too much early on, and once they settle into their roles, team success usually follows.

“You saw that from us from Game 1 to Game 2. We were so amped up in Game 1 with emotions. These are young kids and they try to overdo things,” Motzko said. “We use the analogy that Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions in his rookie year. Well, he did OK as he got older. We need to think older. These guys all have played winning hockey. They know.”

Following the wins over Germany and Switzerland, Team USA led Group A heading into their Monday evening showdown with Slovakia. They play Sweden at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, with medal round play set to begin on Friday, Jan. 2.

Bob Motzko speaks to reporters after being introduced as head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team before an NHL hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

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Firefighter Timothy Bertz was “all in, all the time.”

“You will hear those words when someone talks about Tim Bertz — that was his motto, and he was the embodiment of those words within his family, his friendships and the fire service and beyond,” said Harris Fire Chief Drew Chapeau on Monday at Bertz’s memorial service.

Bertz, 52, graduated from the St. Paul Fire Department academy on Dec. 17, worked at the training facility on Dec. 19, and had a sudden and major medical event at home on Saturday, Dec. 20, according to the fire department. He died at the hospital on Dec. 22.

He’d been a paid-on-call firefighter at the Harris Fire Department in Chisago County, Minn., for the past three years, and later became a duty crew member with the Lino Lakes Fire Department. It was his dream to become a St. Paul firefighter.

Bertz’s sister, Katie Karels, got to see her brother receive his St. Paul Fire Department badge at the graduation.

St. Paul Firefighter Timothy Bertz takes the firefighter oath during a graduation ceremony at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“I’ve never seen Tim so happy, except when he married Andrea,” she said at her brother’s memorial service at Maranatha Church in Forest Lake.

Andrea and Tim Bertz would have celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary Tuesday. Sunday was 31 years since their first date, Andrea Bertz remembered Monday.

She said she supported him “wholeheartedly” in his fire career.

“I was glad that he wanted to help our community and our neighbors,” Andrea Bertz said. “I always felt that if you were the one having your worst days medically or with a fire in your home, you would want my husband showing up at your door. He would do everything in his power to save you. He was brave, smart and skilled.”

At the Lino Lakes department, Chief Dan L’Allier said Bertz’s shift started at 6 a.m., but that didn’t mean Bertz pulled into the parking lot at that time. It meant “trucks were checked, gear was ready to go, and he was prepared to respond the second the tones dropped.

“He believed deeply in the phrase, ‘All in, all the time,’ and he lived it quietly, consistently, professionally,” L’Allier said.

Bertz had joined the Navy to be a firefighter, but “the Navy saw other skills that led him down the road to become a (Navy) SEAL,” Andrea Bertz said.

“Tim carried his military discipline and life experience into the fire service and in the academy,” said St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks.

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“He mentored younger recruits, offered perspective when it mattered most, and modeled what it meant to be part of a team,” Inks said. “He earned respect through humility, preparation, and just good old-fashioned hard work and integrity.”

Bertz also was an organ donor.

“His legacy will continue, not only in memory, but in the lives of people he will never meet,” Inks said, adding that because of Bertz, he just renewed his driver’s license and opted to indicate on his license that he will be an organ donor.

Bertz was interred at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, and flags were flown at half-staff at state buildings Monday. His family prefers, in lieu of flowers, memorials to the St. Paul Fire Foundation.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Noem posted a video on the social platform X showing DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”

“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement posted.

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The action comes a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency had “surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”

Patel said that previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases that to date have resulted in dozens of people being charged with stealing $250 million in a pandemic-related fraud scheme to steal from federal programs.

A spokesperson for Walz did not immediately respond to an email Monday seeking comment.

In recent weeks, tensions have been high between state and federal enforcement in the area as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.