This Wednesday when it gets dark will be the optimal time to observe the first meteor shower of 2024: the quadrantidswhich could reach an activity rate above 120 fleeting meteors per hour and a speed of 41 kilometers per second, reports the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN).
The quadrantids are one of the most active rains of the year along with the Perseids August and Geminids December, although its meteors are not seen as often as those of the other two showers, due to the fact that their period of maximum activity usually lasts only a few hours and the bad weather conditions common in winter.
Although its maximum activity will be early morning from Wednesday to Thursdaythis meteor shower takes place between December 28 and January 12.
This meteor shower is due to the fact that the Earth is passing through a ring populated with the fragments supposedly detached from the asteroid 2003 EH1, which upon coming into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere They burn, creating those luminous glows. which are known as shooting stars, and which in this case correspond to the quadrantids.
The meteor shower appears to have a single center of origin, called the radiant, a point from which all the shooting stars whose location is often used to name the meteor shower appear to emerge.