Summary
- The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks early Friday.
- This will be the first meteor shower of 2025.
- The upcoming show will not be overshadowed by moonlight, as the crescent moon will set before the shower peaks.
Start the New Year with the first meteor shower of 2025.
The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks before dawn in the early hours of Friday. That’s when people in the Northern Hemisphere will have the best chance to see the shooting stars, even though the shower is already underway. Lucky people may get some on New Year’s Eve, but the celestial show will be active until January 16.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is caused by debris from an asteroid called 2003 EH1, which takes more than 5 years to complete one orbit around the Sun.
Quadrantids are known to produce bright, and sometimes colorful, fireball meteors as they erupt from large pieces of debris.
During the peak of the shower early Friday, the crescent moon will have already set, so the shooting stars will not be at risk of being overshadowed by the bright moonlight.
The Quadrantides will be best viewed from mid-northern to far northern latitudes before the sun begins to appear on Friday. For the ideal view, bundle up and head to a spot away from the city lights, with a clear and unobstructed view of the sky.
No special equipment required, meteors can be seen with the naked eye.
In clear and dark conditions, people can see about 120 meters per hour during the peak of the shower. According to NASA.
Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through large streams of debris from a comet or asteroid. When these pieces of rock and cosmic dust hit the planet’s atmosphere, they burn up and spread across the night sky like stars.
Most other meteor showers occur over two days, but the Quadrantids have a shorter peak, lasting only six hours. According to NASA, this is because the debris cloud is relatively thin, and Earth’s orbit is such that the planet rotates through it at a right angle.
Meteor showers usually get their name based on where the shooting stars originate in the sky. For example, Perseid meteors appear to originate from the constellation Perseus, and Geminid meteors appear to originate from the constellation Gemini.
However, the Quadrantids are named for a now obsolete constellation known as “Quadrans Muralis”. This group of stars was not included by the International Astronomical Union when it created its list of recognized modern constellations in 1922, but the meteor shower retained its name.
The former Quadrans Muralis Bridge was located near the Big Dipper. While meteors may appear to streak across the sky from this point, people should be able to see shooting stars across 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.