The 2026 Quadrantids' peaks and the rotation of the parent asteroid

ATel #17676; Costantino Sigismondi (ICRANet Pescara and APRA-ISF Rome), Federico Manzini (Stazione Astronomica di Sozzago), Virginio Oldani (Stazione Astronomica di Sozzago), Paolo Ochner (UniPd; INAF-OAPd), Maria Salvatori Buzzanca (Liceo Morgagni, Roma)
on 12 Feb 2026; 14:00 UT
Credential Certification: Costantino Sigismondi (sigismondi@icra.it)

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Meteor showers have been associated with comets since the XIX century, after the Italian astronomer G. V. Schiaparelli who first explained the origin of the Perseids in 1865, while the gravitation of the comets was found by E. Halley about 150 years before, examining the past passages of the Comet 1P, included the one observed in 1456 by Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli in Florence. The coma and the (false) nucleus of a comet appear much wider than the real dimension of the body producing these phenomena, when excited by the solar radiation during their perihelia, so the first clear images of a nucleus were the ones in 1986 of 1P/Halley through the Giotto and Vega space missions. Studies on cometary nuclei rotations develop along with the asteroid ones, through the identification of periodicities in the luminosity of the minor bodies, due to the periodical changing of exposed areas and albedo features with respect to the Earth's line of sight. The kinematic analysis of dust and gaseous tails ejected from the nuclei complete the present panorama. After the 2025 Geminids peak (ATel #17629), we identified possible signatures of jets from an active source of meteoroids on the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, returning with a period comparable with its rotation. We examined also the 2025 Ursids shower (ATel #17675) related to the comet 8P/ Tuttle. The rotation of the parent binary-contact comet may determine the structure of the meteoroids' cloud intercepted by the Earth around the solar longitude 270.75 deg. Finally we analyzed the 2026 Quadrantids meteor shower, usually yielding an abundant ZHR > 100 and able to produce a statistically significant signal in the peak's night. The Quadrantids have as parent body the Amor-type asteroid 2003 EH1 and the sungrazing Comet 96 P/Machholz, both with 4.1 hours rotation's period. The Quadrantids complex is already known to show distinct sub-peaks at maximum. The 2026 Quadrantids peak occurred between 3 and 4 January 2026 UT, and we observed them from the Northern horizon webcam of Brno Observatory. The link to the video of the whole night is available at https://www.imo.net/members/imo_photo/view?photo_id=4419 Despite of the full Moon, the limiting magnitude of the sky was 5.3 in the 40x90 sq. deg. field of view, about (1/5 of the sky). The ups and downs of the ZHR curve along the night are represented by a period of 3.4 +/- 0.4 hours, close but distinct from the aforementioned rotation periods of the Quadrantids' parent bodies. For this study we selected single observing positions, to avoid to cancel the structures of the meteoroids' cloud smaller than the projected distance between two observers exposed to that cloud. Both facts imply a low number of meteors' counts. Regional observations, in this respect, could improve fruitfully this study instead of integrating them Worldwide.

Structures of Quadrantids meteor shower's peak in 2026