Sunday marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, signaling the start of astronomical winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, it's the longest day, marking the beginning of summer. The term "solstice" comes from Latin, meaning the sun's "pause" in its annual path. After the winter solstice, the sun begins to climb higher, and days gradually lengthen until late June. Solstices have been celebrated for ages, with monuments like Stonehenge aligning with the sun's paths. The equinox, in contrast, is when both hemispheres receive equal sunlight, leading to nearly equal day and night lengths.

It's almost time to catch summer's double meteor showers. The Southern Delta Aquariid and Alpha Capricornid meteor showers peak in the early morning of July 30. With minimal interference from moonlight, the meteors should appear bright and clear if viewed away from city lights. Each shower is expected to produce up to a dozen visible meteors per hour. The Alpha Capricornids may have tails that linger longer in the night sky. Viewing of each shower lasts through August 12. The next major meteor shower, the Perseids, will peak in mid-August.

Peak sunshine has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere — the summer solstice.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft will soon swoop past a small asteroid. It will be the second asteroid encounter for Lucy, launched in 2021 on a quest that will take it to 11 space rocks. Its ultimate destination is the unexplored swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter. NASA considers Sunday's flyby a dress rehearsal for 2027 when Lucy reaches its first so-called Trojan asteroid near Jupiter. Looking on from Mission Control in Colorado will be paleontologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the Lucy fossil 50 years ago. The asteroid is named for him.

A NASA spacecraft will make its second close brush with the sun. The Parker Solar Probe made its record-breaking first pass within 3.8 million miles of the scorching sun in December, flying closer than any object sent before. Parker will attempt the journey again on Saturday. Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand the sun's outer atmosphere and what drives the solar wind. Parker was launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun and is the fastest spacecraft built by humans.

Spring is almost here — officially, at least.

College students, rocket scientists and math enthusiasts around the world are celebrating Pi Day. The holiday on March 14 — or 3/14 — correlates to the first three digits of the infinite number. It's also Albert Einstein's birthday, making the pie eaten at Pi Day gatherings all the sweeter. Pi is a mathematical constant that expresses the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is part of many formulas useful in physics, astronomy, engineering and other fields, dating back thousands of years to ancient Egypt and Babylon. Across the country, many events now take place on college campuses.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Landing a spacecraft on the moon has long been a series of hits and misses.

A privately owned lunar lander has touched down on the moon. But flight controllers in Texas cannot confirm its condition or whether it's even upright near the south pole. The last time Intuitive Machines landed a spacecraft on the moon, a year ago, it ended up sideways. The company's newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned Thursday, carrying an ice drill, a drone and two rovers for NASA and others. The descent appeared to go well. But it took a while for Mission Control to confirm touchdown. More than an hour after landing, the Houston company had yet to provide an update.