Quadrantids, 1st meteor shower of 2025, expected to peak tonight: How to watch
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(NEW YORK) — Stargazers can ring in the beginning of 2025 by witnessing the first meteor shower of the year.
The Quadrantids, one of the “strongest” displays of the year, are expected to peak Thursday night through early Friday morning, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).
Peak activity is predicted to occur from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. EST, during which the Quadrantids can produce about 120 meteors per hour, according to the AMS.
However, the peak is typically a much shorter timeframe than other meteor showers, according to NASA. Most meteor showers have a two-day peak, but the Quadrantids only peak for a few hours due to the shower’s thin stream of particles — and because Earth crosses the stream at a perpendicular angle.
Therefore, Earth passes through the densest portion of the stream quickly, according to the AMS.
Where do the Quadrantids come from?
The Quadrantids originate from asteroid 2003 EH1, unlike most meteor showers, which originate from comets, according to NASA. Asteroid 2003 EH1 takes about 5.52 years to orbit the Sun and could be a “dead comet” or “rock comet,” a rare celestial body that exhibits characteristics of both an asteroid and a comet.
The “small” asteroid, with a diameter measuring only about two miles, was discovered in March 2003. Quadrantid meteors were first seen in 1825, according to NASA.
The Quadrantids are considered among astronomers as one of the “best” annual meteor showers, according to NASA. They peak every year in early January and can produce 60 to as many as 200 meteors per hour under perfect conditions.
They are also known for their bright fireballs, according to NASA. The Quadrantids originate from larger particles of material, which result in larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.
How to view the Quadrantids
The radiant for Quadrantids — the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate — is an obsolete constellation called “Quadrans Muralis,” located between the constellations of Bootes and Draco.
The best way to view the Quadrantids is from the Northern Hemisphere during the predawn hours, as this area of the sky lies very low in the northwest in the evening. But as night progresses, the sky swings 40 degrees beneath the northern celestial pole before beginning a slow rise into the northeastern sky, according to the AMS.
“It is between this time and dawn that you will have your best chance to view these meteors,” according to the AMS.
A waning crescent moon will allow skies to remain dark for good viewing conditions as long as clouds do not hamper visibility.
Viewers can lie flat on their back with feet facing northeast to take in as much of the night sky as possible, NASA said.
“By facing this direction you be able to see meteors shoot out of the radiant in all directions,” the AMS said.
With peak activity expected between 15:00 and 18:00 Universal Time, viewers in the Pacific area, including the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska, are favored to have the best viewing conditions, according to the AMS.
It is important to allow eyes to adjust to the dark for at least 30 minutes to allow for be viewing conditions, according to NASA. “Serious observers” should watch for at least an hour, as numerous peaks and valleys will occur, according to the AMS.
(BURBANK, Calif.) — A woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly was hired as a nurse at several California hospitals using “a variety of false identities” despite not having a nursing license, according to the Burbank Police Department.
Amanda Leeann Porter, 44, allegedly impersonated a registered nurse at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. She allegedly applied for and obtained a nursing job at the medical center and was overseeing about 60 patients from April 8 to May 8, according to police.
Hospital staff then soon discovered she was impersonating a real registered nurse who lived out of state, according to police.
By the time she was terminated from the hospital, she had received two paychecks, police said.
She does not hold a nursing license and is on federal probation for a fraud violation committed in Virginia, police said.
During their investigation, police discovered she had previously obtained employment with various local hospitals using a variety of false identities, police said.
Porter was arrested on Nov. 7 after she bonded out of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s custody for a similar act committed at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, police said.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Porter with felony identity theft, felony false impersonation and felony grand theft.
She was arraigned on Wednesday and is currently being held without bail at the Los Angeles County Central Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, police said.
Police believe she may have committed similar offenses in the Southern California area over the past year and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
(ATHENS, Ga.) — The suspect accused of murdering Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus was found guilty on all charges Wednesday, including malice murder and felony murder.
Prosecutors called the evidence against the suspect “overwhelming,” while the defense raised the theory that the defendant could be an accomplice but not the killer during closing arguments in his trial.
Jose Ibarra, 26, was accused of killing the 22-year-old nursing student while she was out for a run after prosecutors said she “refused to be his rape victim.” Jose Ibarra, an undocumented migrant, was charged with malice murder and felony murder in connection with her death, which became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.
Jose Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and the case was presented over four days in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who rendered the verdict on Wednesday.
Sobbing could be heard in the courtroom as he read the guilty verdicts on each charge.
Before announcing his verdict, Haggard told the courtroom that he wrote down two statements from the attorneys during closing arguments.
One was a statement by the prosecutor, who said the “evidence was overwhelming and powerful.”
The other was one by the defense attorney, who said that the judge is “required to set aside my emotions.”
“That’s the same thing we tell jurors,” he said. “That’s the way I have to approach this, and I did. Both of those statements are correct.”
Court is on recess until 12:30 p.m. ET, at which point Haggard said he is ready to move ahead with sentencing.
Jose Ibarra faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors called 28 witnesses while laying out what they said was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jose Ibarra killed Riley, who died by blunt force head trauma and asphyxia.
Special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the court Jose Ibarra encountered Riley while she was on her morning jog on Feb. 22 while he was out “hunting” for women on the Athens campus.
Ross said Riley “fought for her life” in a struggle that caused Jose Ibarra to leave forensic evidence behind. Digital and video evidence also pointed to him as the only killer, she said.
“The evidence in this case has been overwhelming, and the evidence in this case has spoken loud and clear — that he is Laken Riley’s killer, and that he killed her because she would not let him rape her,” Ross said during her closing argument on Wednesday.
A forensics expert testified that Jose Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s right fingernails, and that his two brothers, who lived with him in an apartment near the campus, were excluded as matches.
When Jose Ibarra was questioned by police a day after the murder, he had visible scratches on his arms, officers said. He also had scratches on his neck and back, which Ross said could have only been left by Riley.
“In order to not find him guilty, you would have to disbelieve your own eyes,” Ross said.
“She marked him. She marked him for everyone to see. She marked him for you to see,” Ross told the judge.
Prosecutors argued Jose Ibarra hindered Riley from making a 911 call, and said his thumbprint was left on her phone. Data from his Samsung phone and the Garmin watch Riley was wearing on her run showed the devices overlapped and were in close proximity in the forest where she was found dead, an FBI analyst testified.
Jose Ibarra was captured on Ring footage discarding a bloody jacket and disposable gloves near his apartment about 15 minutes after Riley died, prosecutors said. The individual’s face can’t be seen in the video, but Jose Ibarra’s roommate testified that it was him. The defendant’s brother, Diego Ibarra, also identified him as the person in the video while being questioned by police a day after the murder.
Riley’s DNA was found on the jacket and gloves, the forensics expert said. Jose Ibarra’s DNA was also found on the jacket, while his two brothers were excluded as matches, the expert said.
“That is what we call consciousness of guilt in our business — he threw away those items because he knew he had killed her, and he threw them away because he didn’t want anyone to find him,” Ross said.
Her DNA was also found on an Adidas cap he was seen wearing in the video, the expert said. That cap was not discarded, Ross surmised, because Jose Ibarra could not see that there was actually blood on it.
Jose Ibarra was also seen in different clothes from the dumpster Ring footage discarding unidentifiable items in a bag that was never recovered by police hours after the killing. Ross surmised that the bag contained the clothes he was wearing earlier, which were also similar to ones he was wearing in a selfie posted on Snapchat earlier that morning.
“His digital evidence of posting selfies of himself wearing what is basically his rapist gear an hour before he leaves his house that condemns him, he has condemned himself,” Ross said.
The defense called three witnesses, including a neighbor who said Diego Ibarra had threatened her the night of Riley’s murder.
The defense said they had planned to call two additional witnesses — including Diego Ibarra, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to possessing a fraudulent green card, however, his attorney did not wish for him to testify.
“While the evidence in this case is voluminous, it is circumstantial,” defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge.
Beck told the judge they advised Jose Ibarra to have a bench trial “trusting that your honor could and believing that your honor would set aside the emotions in this case and simply consider the evidence.”
She argued there is doubt about what was tested and said the judge should be “skeptical” of the DNA evidence.
She presented an “alternative theory” that Diego Ibarra was actually Riley’s murderer, and that Jose Ibarra was an accomplice in covering up the evidence.
“Maybe it was him throwing away the jacket, as Diego said, maybe he was covering up for his brother,” Beck said.
“Under that theory, of course, Jose would be guilty of tampering, but that theory does not prove that he was present or involved in the murder of Laken Riley,” she said.
She said since three gloves were discarded, which “suggests that there are multiple pairs of hands wearing those gloves.”
On rebuttal, Ross called the defense’s theory “desperate” and a “mischaracterization of the evidence.”
“There is no reasonable explanation for all of this evidence other than he is guilty of every single count in this indictment,” Ross said.
Diego Ibarra told officers during questioning that he was asleep at the time the killing occurred. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified earlier Wednesday that there was no evidence to contradict that statement.
Jose Ibarra, a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022, waived his right to testify during the trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, including malice murder and felony murder.
Additional charges in the 10-count indictment included aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — the jacket and gloves — involving the offense of malice murder.
Jose Ibarra was also charged with a peeping tom offense. Prosecutors said that in the hours before Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a UGA graduate student, and said the incident “shows his state of mind” that day.
The student testified that she called police after hearing someone trying to open her door.
Ross said the person at the student’s apartment was wearing clothes similar to the ones Jose Ibarra had on in the Snapchat selfie posted earlier that morning, including the Adidas cap.
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — A federal judge paused the child sexual abuse case involving President-elect Donald Trump’s education secretary pick Linda McMahon, her husband Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
The Maryland lawsuit, filed in October by five John Does who worked as the ringside crew when they were teens, alleges WWE co-founders Linda and Vince McMahon turned a blind eye to years of sexual abuse of the underaged “ring boys” by an announcer and executives at the company. The McMahons have denied the claims.
The stay in the case is a major development for the businesswoman and former Small Business Administration head — Linda McMahon’s cabinet role is tasked with investigating sexual misconduct in education programs.
Linda McMahon has been meeting with senators who will determine whether she’ll be confirmed for the position in Trump’s second administration while her apparent lack of experience in schools is being debated.
U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar granted a stay in the case pending a ruling by the Supreme Court of Maryland in the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023 (CVA). The CVA could repeal the statute of limitations in certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse, according to Maryland House Bill 1. This includes sexual abuse and any other sexual conduct that is a crime.
Earlier this week, the defendants, WWE, it’s parent company TKO, and the McMahons, sought a stay in the case until the Maryland Supreme Court rules on CVA’s constitutionality. The defendants argued a motion to stay was key in the case involving alleged abuse from roughly forty years ago. A decision by the high court is expected Aug. 31, 2025.
The scathing lawsuit came just weeks before Linda McMahon’s nomination for education secretary. The decades-old sexual abuse allegations were slammed by her attorney, Laura Brevetti. In November, Brevetti told ABC News the FBI investigated the allegations at the time and found no grounds to further investigate the claims, calling the most recent lawsuit “baseless.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment. However, the allegations could impact McMahon’s confirmation for the cabinet position.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told ABC News if there’s evidence proving Linda McMahon concealed the alleged sexual abuse scandal then it would be a “pretty big concern.”
