The annual Quadrantid meteor shower will peak Friday morning before dawn. Though the shower is already beginning, Northern Hemisphere residents will have the best opportunity of witnessing the shooting stars. Lucky folks may catch some on New Year's Eve, but the performance runs until Jan. 16.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is triggered by debris from 2003 EH1, an asteroid that orbits the sun in almost five years.
Quadrantid fireball meteors are brighter and sometimes colored because they come from bigger debris.
The crescent moon will have set by the shower's peak early Friday, protecting the shooting stars from moonlight.
Friday before sunrise, the Quadrantids will be best viewed from mid- to far-northern latitudes. Bundle up and choose a clear sky area away from city lights for best viewing.
Meteors can be seen without equipment. NASA estimates that during the shower's height, 120 meteors per hour might be seen in clear, dark skies.
Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through massive comet or asteroid debris. When rock and cosmic dust contact the planet's atmosphere, they burn up and become shooting stars.
The Quadrantids peak for six hours, unlike most meteor showers that span two days. NASA says Earth orbits at a perpendicular angle through the debris cloud because it is thin.
Meteor showers are named for where the shooting stars appear to originate. Perseid and Geminid meteors appear to come from Perseus and Gemini, respectively.
However, the Quadrantids are named after the extinct constellation “Quadrans Muralis.” The meteor shower kept its name even though the International Astronomical Union did not include this group of stars in its 1922 list of contemporary constellations.