William Atkins
Tuesday, 30 December 2008 20:43
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
The Quadrantids, one of the major meteor showers seen on Earth, are expected to have their maximum number of meteors shooting across the early morning sky at 12:40 Universal Time (UT) on Saturday January 3, 2009.
Astronomers consider the Quadrantid (pronounced KWA-dran-tid) meteor shower, which regularly occurs in January, to be one of the best meteor showers of any year as seen in the Northern Hemisphere.
On the western coast of the United States—where people will have the best vantage point for the show in the United States—the peak of the Quadrantids will be at approximately 4:40 Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Saturday, January 3, 2009.
You will be able to see the meteors shoot out from the formerly named constellation Quadrans Muralis (Wall Quadrant), which no longer exists (according to the International Astronomical Union [IAU], which names celestial bodies) .
The radiant of the Quadrantids (the central point where the meteors appear to origin) is located in the northeastern sky, between the constellations Bootes, Hercules, and Draco, and the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), with the North Star (Polaris) off to the north.
According to the MSNBC article “
Quadrantids meteor shower should be stellar,” the
“Quadrantid meteors are described as bright and bluish with long silvery trains.” Additional information on the 2009 Quadrantids is also contained within the MSNBC article.
The meteors are thought by astronomers to probably come from the remains from an extinct comet that has lost all of its icy materials during many, many orbits around the Sun.
The comet is actually the near-Earth asteroid 2003 EH1 (also classified as a minor planet), which was identified in 2003 by Peter Jenniskensan, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, U.S.A.
More information follows on page two.
