For anyone who has clear skies in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 4, look up! You could catch a spectacular show from the Quadrantid meteor shower!
Right now, Earth is passing through a stream of rocky, icy debris in space, left behind by what is likely a shattered comet, as it travels through the inner solar system.
When these bits of rock and ice – collectively known as meteoroids – are swept up by Earth, they plunge into the atmosphere travelling at over 40 kilometers per second! At that speed, they compress the air in their paths, causing the air to glow. This shows up as streaks of light in the night sky known as meteors, and since these meteors are all from the same source, we call it a meteor shower.
The location of the Quadrantid radiant, on the night of January 3-4, 2020. Credit: Stellarium/Scott Sutherland
For this particular meteor shower, as the meteors streak across the sky, they appear to radiate out from a particular point in the sky – the ‘radiant’ – which happens to be near a defunct constellation known as Quadrans Muralis. Although this particular constellation is no longer used, it still lends its name to the meteor shower.
The Quadrantids is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, producing up to 120 meteors per hour, under ideal conditions. Most viewers, if they have clear skies and they can get away from city light pollution, tend to see about half that number, as some of the meteors are just too fast or faint to see. Still, catching a meteor every minute is still very good!
This false-color image of a rare early Quadrantid was captured by a NASA meteor camera in 2010. Credit: NASA/Meteoroid Environment Office/Bill Cooke
One complication for the Quadrantid meteor shower is its very sharp peak.
Most other meteor showers have a peak that lasts all night, or possibly even over a few days. The peak of the Quadrantids typically lasts for only around 6 hours. Thus, the best time to watch the Quadrantids tonight will be in the hours between midnight and dawn.
WILL WE SEE IT?
Although the phase of the Moon is timed well for this year’s Quadrantids – it is a first quarter Moon, which will set around midnight – the sky conditions are just not cooperating for most of Canada.
The best places to watch from, based on cloud cover, appear to be a thin swath of Alberta in the lee of the Rockies, as well as in parts of southwestern Saskatchewan.
HOW TO WATCH FROM ANYWHERE
Don’t despair if you are caught under cloudy skies tonight! There are other ways to watch this meteor shower, right from the comfort of your home.
First off, since the early morning hours are best to watch, there may be some clear breaks in the clouds through which to catch a few meteors. For example, there were cloudy conditions across southern Ontario for the 2019 Quadrantids, but the University of Toronto Scarborough all-sky cam still captured several fireball meteors over the area in the early morning hours.
If there are no breaks in the cloud, we can watch via Astronomy Live Stream on YouTube, which broadcasts the view of the night sky from near Denver, CO.
One of the more interesting ways to ‘watch’ the Quadrantids is via meteor radar, as shown below.
This sample image from MeteorScan.com shows multiple meteor detections at 21:19 UTC on December 13, 2019. Credit: MeteorScan
The coloured ‘spikes’ in the image above show the radar return signal when a meteoroid is detected passing by overhead. Since this radar is located in the United Kingdom, it isn’t the most ideal location during the peak, but will still pick up some Quadrantids during the night.
We can also ‘listen’ to the meteor shower, via the Meteor Echoes live stream, which presents the radar detections of meteoroid hitting the top of the atmosphere as high pitched audio chirps.
SHATTERED COMET?
The Quadrantids are known to originate from an asteroid known as 2003 EH1. That makes this only one of two known meteor showers to originate from a rocky body! The December Geminids is the other, originating from ‘rock comet’ asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
The interesting thing about 2003 EH1 is that it may be an extinct or shattered comet. So, long ago, it was a normal comet – a ‘dirty snowball’ in space, made of rock and ice, with a dark dusty coating. On each pass this comet made around the Sun, it blasted out jets of gas and icy debris, but eventually it either broke apart or it simply ran out of ice and gas.
Now, only the asteroid is left behind, continuing to orbit around the Sun along a trajectory more typical of comets.
Sources: IMO | NASA | With files from The Weather Network
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
