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Credit & Copyright: LKL Yeom Beom-seok
Explanation:
Named for a
forgotten constellation,
the
Quadrantid
Meteor Shower
puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers.
The shower's radiant on the sky
lies within the old, astronomically obsolete constellation
Quadrans Muralis.
That location is not far from the Big Dipper asterism,
known to some as the Plough,
at the boundaries of the modern constellations Bootes and Draco.
In fact the Big Dipper "handle" stars are near the upper
right corner in this frame, with the meteor shower radiant just below.
North star
Polaris is toward the top left.
Pointing back toward the radiant,
Quadrantid meteors streak through the night in
this skyscape from Jangsu, South Korea.
The composite image was recorded in the hours around
the shower's peak on January 4, 2024.
A likely source of the dust stream that produces
Quadrantid meteors was identified
in 2003
as an asteroid.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: meteor shower
Publications with words: meteor shower
See also:
- APOD: 2025 August 2 B Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way
- APOD: 2025 July 25 B Twelve Years of Kappa Cygnids
- APOD: 2024 December 10 B The Great Meteor Storm of 1833
- APOD: 2023 December 17 B Geminids over Chinas Nianhu Lake
- Orionids in Taurus
- Halley Dust, Mars Dust, and Milky Way
- Seven Years of Halley Dust