Quadrantids

The meteor rates exceed one-half of their highest value for only about eight hours (compared to two days for the August Perseids), which means that the stream of particles that produces this shower is narrow, and apparently deriving within the last 500 years from some orbiting body.

[5] The parent body of the Quadrantids was tentatively identified in 2003 by Peter Jenniskens[6] as the minor planet 2003 EH1, which in turn may be related to the comet C/1490 Y1[7] that was observed by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers some 500 years ago.

[8] The name comes from Quadrans Muralis, a former constellation created in 1795 by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande that included portions of Boötes and Draco.

In early January 1825, Antonio Brucalassi in Italy reported that “the atmosphere was traversed by a multitude of the luminous bodies known by the name of falling stars.”[1] They appeared to radiate from Quadrans Muralis.

In 1839, Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory in Belgium and Edward C. Herrick in Connecticut[9] independently made the suggestion that the Quadrantids are an annual shower.