The first meteor shower of 2025 is set to peak this week.

 The annual Quadrantid meteor shower has started, with the peak display anticipated during the early hours of Friday.

A starry sky during the Quadrantid meteor shower appears in China's Bayingolin Mongol autonomous prefecture in 2021.

Jan. 1, 2025, 2:49 AM GMT+6

Celebrate the arrival of 2025 by witnessing the first meteor shower of the year: the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. It’s set to peak in the early hours of Friday, before dawn, offering the best viewing opportunity for those in the Northern Hemisphere. Though the shower has already begun, skywatchers may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of shooting stars as early as New Year’s Eve. The event will continue until January 16.

The Quadrantids are caused by debris from the asteroid 2003 EH1, which takes over five years to complete an orbit around the sun. These meteors are famous for being brighter and sometimes colorful, as they come from larger pieces of debris.

During the peak, which occurs early on Friday, the crescent moon will have already set, ensuring the meteors won’t be overshadowed by bright moonlight. The best views will be from mid-northern to far-northern latitudes, just before dawn. For optimal viewing, find a spot away from city lights with a clear, unobstructed view of the sky, and don’t forget to bundle up.

No special equipment is needed—just your eyes. Under clear, dark skies, you could catch up to 120 meteors per hour at the peak, according to NASA. Meteor showers happen when Earth passes through clouds of debris left behind by comets or asteroids. As these bits of rock and dust enter our atmosphere, they burn up and create the streaks of light known as shooting stars.

Unlike most meteor showers that last a couple of days, the Quadrantids have a short six-hour peak due to the thinness of the debris cloud and Earth’s perpendicular trajectory through it. The Quadrantids are named after the now-obsolete constellation “Quadrans Muralis,” which was near the Big Dipper. Though the constellation itself is no longer recognized, the meteor shower retained its name.

While meteors seem to radiate from the old Quadrans Muralis location, you can spot shooting stars all across the sky without focusing on any one direction.