                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2024 January 11

                          Quadrantids of the North
               Image Credit & Copyright: 염범석 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.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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