NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA scientists and astronomers took to the skies in the afternoon of Jan. 3 to observe nature's New Year's celebration: the Quadrantid meteor shower.

	Left:A composite image created by combining photographs of meteors and aurora borealis taken during the Quadrantids airborne mission. Photo Credit: Jeremie Vaubaillon, California Institute of Technology Click on the image for full-resolution.
	Left: Danielle Townsend, a high school student at Southfield School, Brookline, Mass., and crewmember of the Quadrantid airborne mission installs a battery of meteor spectrographs. These cameras were used to measure the Quadrantid meteoroids’ characteristics. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center Click on the image for full-resolution.
	Left: The Quadrantid airborne meteor observing campaign crewmembers stand in front of the Gulfstream V aircraft that flew them over the Arctic. From left to right: Danielle Townsend, Ron Dantowitz, Jim Albers, Robin Gray, Mike Koop, Jeremie Vaubaillon, Mike Wilson, Jason Hatton, Peter Jenniskens, David Nugent, Juergen Wolf, Karsten Schindler, and David Holman. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center Click on the image for full-resolution.
	Left: Ron Dantowitz, Quadrantid mission instrument principal investigator and director of the Clay Center Observatory at the Dexter and Southfield Schools, Brookline, Mass., and Danielle Townsend calibrate a digital camera similar to the camera used by fellow crewmember, Jeremie Vaubaillon of the California Institute of Technology, to capture images of Quadrantid meteor streaks and aurora borealis selected as an "Astronomy Picture of the Day”. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center Click on the image for full-resolution.
	Left: Mike Wilson, of NASA’s Ames Research Center, operates an intensified spectrograph. These cameras were used to measure the composition and physical properties of the Quadrantid meteoroids. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center Click on the image for full-resolution.
	Left: Left to right: Dave Holman and Robin Gray, experienced meteor observers, count Quadrantid meteors by clicking a computer mouse while watching a video taken by one of the cameras filming meteors out the windows of the aircraft. Their tally was used to measure the meteor shower’s peak in near-real time. Photo Credit: NASA Ames Research Center Click on the image for full-resolution.