menu bar: storm - science - researcher - images - ILW - *news

logo

Leonid MAC

home
View the shower
Mission Brief
Science Update
Media Brief
links

LEONID DAILY NEWS: December 28, 2003


Quadrantid meteor

Quadrantid fireball photographed in 1995 by Hans Betlem, Dutch Meteor Society. The meteor image was interrupted by a rotating shutting, enabling us to measure the meteoroid's speed.

QUADRANTID SHOWER EXCEPTIONALLY WELL VISIBLE ON SUNDAY MORNING JANUARY 04

The Quadrantid shower will be visible under unusually good circumstances from the United States and Europe during the early morning of Sunday January 04, 2004. The peak of the shower is at 7:30 UT (08:30 a.m. MET, 02:30 a.m. EST, 23:30 p.m. PST), but the highest meteor rates are only visible in the early morning hours just before dawn, when the Moon has set. Observers in Europe and on the US east coast may see up to 62 meteors/hr, while observers on the west coast will see up to 49 meteors/hr under transparent clear skies in the 2-3 hours before dawn on Sunday morning.

Local time          New York  San Francisco   Paris 
                     (EST) (PST) (MET)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jan 03 - 23:00 p.m.     4*    0     4*    Quadrantids/hour
Jan 04 - 00:00 a.m.    12*    7*    4*
Jan 04 - 01:00 a.m.    25*   23*    8*
Jan 04 - 02:00 a.m.    46*   39*   12*
Jan 04 - 03:00 a.m.    64*   46*   18*
Jan 04 - 04:00 a.m.    65    49    25*             
Jan 04 - 05:00 a.m.    62    49    34
Jan 04 - 06:00 a.m.    58    46    46
Jan 04 - 07:00 a.m.    -.-   -.-   59
Jan 04 - 08:00 a.m.    -.-   -.-   76
moon sets          04:53  05:00  06:02 a.m.  Start of good observing
civil twilight	   06:50  06:53  08:05 a.m.  End of observations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Rates marked "*" are apparent "No-Moon rates", 
the bright Moon will still surpress rates. 
Phase of the Moon on 4 January:   waxing gibbous 
with 91% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated. 

The unique Quadrantid shower.

The Quadrantid shower is unique in that the meteoroids were released during the breakup of a comet nucleus and therefore originate from deep within the comet. They represent relatively large mm-cm sized fragments. Those are larger than the small dust grains collected by the Stardust mission when it will pass by comet Wild 2 on January 02. 2003 EH_1 may facilitate future astrobiology missions of an inactive, but relatively fresh comet surface in search of prebiotic molecules that may have been the building blocks of life.





Previous news items:
2003:
Dec 30 - Quadrantid parent comet observed
Dec 28 - Good Quadrantid show on 2004 Jan 04
Dec 08 - Quadrantid parent discovered
2002:
Nov 23 - "Shock" confirmed
Nov 22 - New molecular band detected
Nov 21 - Leonids tracked
Nov 20 - Asteroids named after Leonid MAC participants
Nov 19 - Leonid storms rich in faint meteors
Oct 22 - Collecting meteoroid debris from snow cover
Oct 21 - Highlights COSPAR/World Space Congress
Aug 31 - First UV spectrum: Leonid from space
2001:
Dec 11 - Shocking Leonid
Dec 01 - Moon impacts
Nov 26 - Near-IR persistent train emission
Nov 24 - Results of near-real time flux measurements
Nov 22 - Wowh! Optical meteor spectra
2000:
Dec. 25 - Ursid shower circular IMO
Dec. 24 - Ursid shows early release of sodium
Dec. 23 - Ursid outburst confirmed
Dec. 18 - Dec 22 Ursid outburst
Nov. 20 - A bacterial fingerprint?
Nov. 15 - HCN disappears mysteriously
Nov. 14 - Meteor shower from space
Nov. 13 - Organic fingerprint
Nov. 12 - Train airglow chemistry
Nov. 11 - Hard bits and persisting glows
Nov. 10 - Meteoroid debris detected
Nov. 09 - New meteor picture
Nov. 08 - Spin city
Nov. 07 - Meteors affect atmospheric chemistry
Nov. 06 - Listen to this!
Nov. 04 - Fear of heights?
Nov. 03 - The pale (infra-red) dot
Nov. 02 - Twin showers
Nov. 01 - Leonids approaching Earth
Oct. 31 - Prospects for Moon Impact Studies
Oct. 30 - Comet dust crumbled less fine
Today's news




Results of this research were published in the Astronomical Journal.


 
Top of Page - Text/Image Use Guidelines


Science Update Storm Science Researcher Images ILW News