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Over 100 shooting stars are set to light up the sky tonight in a spectacular meteor shower that is set to be the first of the new year.
Up to 110 meteors an hour could be visible overnight on Tuesday (January 3) going into Wednesday (January 4) due to the Quandrantid meteor shower – considered among the strongest and most consistent meteor showers.
Rural areas are expected to have the best display, as they do not have much artificial lighting.
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Quadrantids are blue meteors with fine trains that appear to come from the constellation Bootes, near the Big Dipper, the Daily Mirror reports.
Meteors are pieces of debris that enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 43 miles per second (70km per second), vaporising and causing the streaks of light we call meteors.
While the shower is visible to the naked eye when in an area with low light pollution, the peak occurs just before the full moon, so moonlight will cause some interference.
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Additionally, unlike other meteor showers that tend to stay at their peak for about two days, the peak period of the Quadrantids is only for a few hours.
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