The summary
- The annual Quadrantid meteor shower will peak early Friday.
- It will be the first meteor shower of 2025.
- The next spectacle will not be overshadowed by moonlight, as the crescent moon will set before the peak of the rain.
Ring in the new year with the first meteor shower of 2025.
The annual Quadrantid meteor shower will peak during the early hours of Friday before dawn. That’s when people in the northern hemisphere will have the best chance of seeing the shooting stars, although the shower is already underway. The lucky ones may be able to see some on New Year’s Eve, but the celestial spectacle will remain on until January 16.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is caused by the remains of an asteroid called 2003 EH1, which takes more than 5 years to complete one orbit around the sun.
The Quadrantids are known for producing brighter and sometimes colorful fireball meteors because they originate from larger pieces of debris.
During the peak of rain early Friday, the crescent moon will have already set, so shooting stars will not be at risk of being eclipsed by the moon’s bright light.
The Quadrantids will be best seen from mid-northern to northernmost latitudes on Friday, before sunlight begins to appear. For ideal viewing, bundle up and head to a location away from city lights, with a clear, unobstructed view of the sky.
No special equipment is necessary, meteors can be seen with the naked eye.
According to NASA, in bright and dark conditions, people could detect about 120 meteors per hour during the peak of the shower.
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through giant streams of debris from comets or asteroids. When these chunks of rock and cosmic dust hit the planet’s atmosphere, they burn up and streak across the night sky like shooting stars.
Most other meteor showers peak over two days, but the Quadrantids have a shorter peak, lasting only about six hours. This is because the debris cloud is relatively thin and Earth’s orbit is such that the planet passes through it at a perpendicular angle, according to NASA.
Meteor showers are often named after where the shooting stars appear to originate in the sky. The Perseid meteors, for example, appear to originate from the constellation Perseus, and the Geminid meteors appear to originate from the constellation Gemini.
The Quadrantids, however, are named after a now obsolete constellation known as “Quadrans Muralis”. This grouping of stars was not included by the International Astronomical Union when it created a list of recognized modern constellations in 1922, but the meteor shower did keep its name.
The ancient constellation Quadrans Muralis was located near the Big Dipper. While it may seem like meteors are streaming from this point in the sky, people should be able to see shooting stars all over the sky without needing to look in a particular direction.
After the Quadrantids, the next big meteor shower of the year will be the Lyrids, which occur in April.
