Picture of the Day: The First Meteor Shower of 2012

Early in the morning of January 4th, stargazers around the Northern Hemisphere bared the cold to see if they could catch a peek Quadrantid meteor shower. Many ended up just cold, but the lucky ones saw a snippet of the above image, a composite over the course of the night. The streaks are Quadrantid and non-Quandrantid meteors; the dotted arcs are the trails of stars left as the Earth rotates.

Below, recent Pictures of the Day:

Image: NASA.