Next month, just days after most major cities across the globe will have rung in the new year with fireworks, another fireworks show will appear 60 miles high in Earth’s atmosphere. On Jan. 3, one of the year’s four major meteor showers, the Quadrantids, will collide with Earth as it makes its annual pass through a debris stream in space.
This shower has looked spectacular in past years, though it won’t look quite as good in 2026. Under ideal dark conditions, the Quadrantids may produce as many as 80 meteors per hour during peak, many of which are bright-burning, long-lasting shots of light called persistent trains or, more colorfully, fireballs. With the full moon occurring on the same night this year, however, significantly fewer sightings are expected.
