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what's up for January meteor shower

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fireworks ring in the new year

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hello and welcome I'm Jane Houston Jones

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at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

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Pasadena California if you didn't catch

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last month's Geminid meteor shower don't

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worry about it the January quadrant

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heads will be just as good and maybe

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even better depending on your location

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they peak on January 3rd and 4th which

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is a dark new moon night this month this

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means that there won't be any annoying

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moon light to spoil the fireworks

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display this could be the best shower of

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the year the peak of this meteor shower

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is best seen from Europe here in the

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Western Hemisphere the radiant doesn't

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even rise till after midnight and this

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shower has a very sharp peak which means

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that most meteors are visible for only

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several hours instead of several days

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like the famous Perseids of August

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look in the Northeast between and below

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that familiar Big and Little Dippers and

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the bright star Arcturus this shower

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isn't named for the modern constellation

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in which it appears but for an obsolete

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one called quadrants Miralles it depicts

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an early instrument called a mural

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quadrant which was used to observe and

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measure stellar positions it's similar

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to today's sextant there's more to enjoy

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this wintery month Venus mercury and

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Saturn continued to dazzle early risers

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before dawn and by month end Saturn

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Rises before midnight Jupiter on the

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other hand sets before 9:30 p.m. by

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month end in February the repurposed

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spacecraft Stardust next will fly by

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comet Tempel 1 which was first visited

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by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft in 2005

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you can learn more about our planetary

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family tree at solarsystem.nasa.gov

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slash yss for year of the solar system

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you can learn all about other NASA