It’s hard to say which was the bigger space celebrity in 2024: the sun, or the moon.

Right from the outset, the moon was the place to be. In January, Japan became the fifth nation to join the 238,000-mile-high club when its “Moon Sniper” mission completed the most precise lunar landing in history — despite a last-minute glitch that left the lander perched on its nose. Around the same time, rival missions from private spaceflight companies resulted in the first commercial moon landing in history. This year also saw China head to the far side of the moon for the second time — this time bringing several pounds of precious lunar samples back to Earth with its Chang’e 6 spacecraft.

Not to be outshined by Earth’s natural satellite, the sun made its presence known in 2024 in big ways. In October, scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that the sun had officially entered the chaotic peak of its 11-year activity cycle, known as solar maximum. But the writing was on the wall — and painted in Earth’s skies — long before that, as the sun spent all year stirring up solar storms, firing off powerful X-class flares and showering our planet with rare global auroras, some of which were seen as far south as Florida. The intense solar activity delighted skywatchers but alarmed farmers whose GPS-guided tractors started swerving off-course “like they were demon possessed.”

Can’t Earth’s favorite celestial bodies just get along? They did, for a few hours on April 8, when a long-anticipated total solar eclipse glided across North America from Mexico to Canada. With Earth, the moon and sun temporarily aligned, an estimated 44 million people — and at least one goose — were treated to eerie darkness in the daytime, augmented colors and temperatures, and a rare naked-eye view of the sun’s crackling corona.