United States: The new year kicks off with the Quadrantids, which seems to be the one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, according to NASA. However, it’s a quick one—unlike other meteor showers that last for several days, the Quadrantids peak for only about six hours. So, if you want to see the stunning meteors, you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled during that short window!
A meteor is debris arising from shattered asteroids or comet fragments moving in dusty trails around sun. Every year planet earth moves through these trails and small particles of dust and rocks give stunning fiery shows called meteor showers before burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
As reported by the CNN, the Quadrantids have a comparatively short and low maximum like many meteor showers because the shower has a small stream of particles and the Earth moves through the densest part of this stream at a right angle rapidly, according to NASA.
Viewing the Quadrantids
The best hour to observe meteor activity in general will be from 10 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET (15 to 18 universal time) on January 3, which will be best viewed in parts of open Alaskan territory, Hawaii as well as the Far Eastern Asia, according to Bob Lunsford, the fireball report coordinator of the American Meteor Society.
Meteor shower peak hours will be before the break of dawn; however, this will still depend with the position of the earth as noted by Earth Sky in the reports given by the CNN Science.
Someone along the East Coast of North America may witness 25 or more meteors per hour while someone on the West Coast, where the sun rises later, may see double that number, Lunsford said. But if skies remain clear over western Alaska, viewers of the shower could witness a meteor more than 100 per hour he said.
Since it is a waxing crescent and is only 11% illuminated, the moon will set early in the evening, which means we will be able to observe the meteor shower uninterruptedly, Lunsford said.
Unlike other meteor showers, the Quadrantids do not have a lingering train, although they can shower very bright fireball for display. Fireballs are defined as bright, sharp, and ‘larger,’ illuminations in the night sky involving noticeably longer afterglow compared to regular meteor flares by NASA.