The annual Quadrantid meteor shower of 2013 is to reach its peak at the night sky of the early morning on Thursday, January 3, only for few hours.
According to NASA scientists, skywatchers can expect to see the display of 60 to 200 meteors an hour streak across the dark sky after the moon sets.
“Those who brave the cold might see up to 40 meteors per hour, although moonlight will make faint meteors harder to spot,” the scientists explained after observing by the Hubble Space Telescope.
“After hundreds of years orbiting the sun, they will enter our atmosphere at 90,000 mph, burning up 50 miles above Earth’s surface,” NASA said.
Introduced first in 1825, the Quadrantids took their name from the constellation of Quadrans Muralis, which is no longer considered a constellation by astronomers.
A meteor shower is seen as a spike in the number of meteors or ‘shooting stars’ that hit the Earth’s atmosphere.
NASA and Ustream are scheduled to have a webcast from Wednesday through Friday with presenting one view of the meteor shower. The camera is installed in Huntsville, Alabama, at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Meanwhile, Earth closest point to the sun (perihelion) of the year of 2013 is also to be occurred on Wednesday, January 2.
Earth is closest to the sun every year in early January at the winter for the Northern Hemisphere while its farthest distance from the sun appears in early July when the people in Northern Hemisphere spend summer.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Scientists Warn Europe Could Enter Ice Age if Gulf Stream Collapses
- Ex-Russian Space Boss Finds 'No Proof' Americans Landed On Moon In 1969
- NASA Lies: Challenger Disaster Crew Members from 1986 Found Alive in 2023
- Mysterious shock wave cracks Earth's magnetosphere, exposing the planet to dangerous space radiation
- Pentagon's UFO office reveals it's investigating 'several HUNDRED' new reports
Loading ...
