November 2026 offers skywatchers an exciting collection of astronomical events, including two meteor showers, a close encounter between Mars and Jupiter, a bright supermoon, and an important milestone in humanity’s exploration of deep space.
Astronomers highlight the Southern and Northern Taurid meteor showers, which are known for producing occasional bright fireballs as Earth passes through streams of cometary debris. Although the Taurids generally produce relatively few meteors per hour, their slower-moving meteors can create impressive streaks of light across the night sky. Later in the month, the Leonid meteor shower provides another opportunity to watch particles left behind by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. November also features a beautiful pairing of Mars and Jupiter, which will appear unusually close together in the sky despite being separated by hundreds of millions of miles in space.
One of the month’s most remarkable events isn’t visible to the naked eye but represents an extraordinary achievement in space exploration. NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft will reach a distance of approximately one light-day from Earth, meaning a radio signal traveling at the speed of light will take 24 hours to reach the spacecraft and another 24 hours for a response to return. NASA is celebrating this historic milestone on November 17, recognizing a spacecraft that has been exploring space since 1977 and is now traveling through interstellar space.
Finally, November 24 brings a full supermoon, when the Moon will appear slightly larger and brighter than an average full Moon because it is relatively close to Earth in its elliptical orbit. This will be the first in a series of three consecutive supermoons extending into January 2027.
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