Mashable

We're just a day away from the Full Moon, and it’s already starting to light up the night sky. If you look closely, you might catch some of the bigger craters and dark patches on its surface.

As of Friday, Jan. 2, the moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to The Sky Live, 98.9% of the moon will be lit up tonight.

The next full moon will be on Jan. 3. The last full moon was on Dec. 4.

According to NASA, the Moon takes roughly 29.5 days to complete a full cycle. This cycle is known as the lunar cycle. Throughout this period, the Moon moves through a series of phases as it orbits the Earth. While the same side of the Moon always faces our planet, the amount of sunlight illuminating its surface changes over time. This is why the Moon appears fully lit, partially illuminated, or not visible at all at different stages of the cycle. The lunar cycle is divided into eight main phases:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

Insulting.

SNIDE

___ and bone.

FLESH

Convulsion.

SPASM

Out of shape.

RUSTY

Foliage.

FLORA

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Fans of the 1930s character Betty Boop can rejoice as a precursor of the iconic cartoon is now in the public domain, as of Jan. 1, 2026.

That means anyone can adapt that specific version of Betty Boop, which appeared in the Dizzy Dishes cartoon, into their own creative work without being subject to copyright laws.

This version of Betty Boop featured her characteristic large eyes and pout but also had elongated dog ears. Her romantic interest at the time was a dog chef, hence her surreal canine appearance.

In 2026, Betty Boop is joined in the public domain by other popular characters, books, films, and songs, including new Mickey Mouse cartoons and comics; the Blondie comic strip characters Blondie and Dagwood; William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying, the illustrated version of Watty Piper's children's book The Little Engine That Could; the film All Quiet on the Western Front; and the standards "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Georgia on My Mind," previously recorded by famous acts like The Mamas & the Papas and Ray Charles, respectively.

These and other creative works now in the public domain can be used without permission or payment. However, people should pay close attention to what version of the work is eligible for use.

Fleischer Studios, which appears to own the copyright to the fully developed Betty Boop character, pointed out that the expiration of that copyright does not apply to other Betty Boop copyrights and trademarks still in effect.

While nine early Mickey Mouse cartoons are now in the public domain, the Mickey Mouse character is still subject to enduring rights. (For more on these legal complexities, check out Mashable's story on the arrival of Popeye to the public domain in 2025.)

Here's some of the notable and beloved works entering the public domain in 2026, according to Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain:

• Dizzy Dishes-era Betty Boop

• Rover (aka Pluto) from Disney's animated 1930 film The Chain Gang

• Original Blondie comic strip characters Blondie and Dagwood

• Nine Mickey Mouse cartoons from 1930, plus the first Mickey Mouse comic strips published in 1930

• All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone

• Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes

• The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh

• Anna Christie, directed by Clarence Brown

• William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

• Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

• T.S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday

• Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness

• "Georgia on My Mind," written by Stuart Gorrell and Hoagy Carmichael

• "Dream a Little Dream of Me," written by Fabian Andre, Wilbur Schwandt, and Gus Kahn

• "On the Sunny Side of the Street," by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh

• "I Got Rhythm," "I've Got a Crush on You," "But Not for Me," and "Embraceable You," written by Ira Gershwin and George Gershwin