NEW YORK — The year’s first supermoon and meteor shower will sync up in January skies, but the light from one may dim the other.

The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the American Meteor Society. In dark skies during the peak, skygazers typically see around 25 meteors per hour, but this time they’ll likely glimpse less than 10 per hour due to light from Saturday’s supermoon.

“The biggest enemy of enjoying a meteor shower is the full moon,” said Mike Shanahan, planetarium director at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey.

Meteor showers happen when speedy space rocks collide with Earth’s atmosphere, burning up and leaving fiery tails in their wake — the end of a “shooting star.” A handful of meteors are visible on any given night, but predictable showers appear annually when Earth passes through dense streams of cosmic debris.

Supermoons occur when a full moon is closer to Earth in its orbit. That makes it appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the faintest moon of the year, according to NASA. That difference can be tough to notice with the naked eye.

Supermoons, like all full moons, are visible in clear skies everywhere that it’s night. The Quadrantids, on the other hand, can be seen mainly from the Northern Hemisphere. Both can be glimpsed without any special equipment.

To spot the Quadrantids, venture out in the early evening away from city lights and watch for fireballs before the moon crashes the party, said Jacque Benitez with the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences. Skygazers can also try looking during early dawn hours on Sunday.

Wait for your eyes to get used to the darkness, and don’t look at your phone. The space rocks will look like fast-moving white dots and appear over the whole sky.

Meteor showers are named for the constellation where the fireballs appear to come from. The Quadrantids — space debris from the asteroid 2003 EH1 — are named for a constellation that’s no longer recognized.

The next major meteor shower, called the Lyrids, is slotted for April.

Supermoons happen a few times a year and come in groups, taking advantage of the sweet spot in the moon’s elliptical orbit. Saturday night’s event ends a four-month streak that started in October. There won’t be another supermoon until the end of 2026.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW YORK — The moon will look slightly bigger and brighter Wednesday night during the closest supermoon of the year.

The moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t a perfect circle, so it gets nearer and farther as it swings around. A so-called supermoon happens when a full moon is closer to Earth in its orbit. That makes the moon look up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the faintest moon of the year, according to NASA.

November’s supermoon is the second of three supermoons this year and also the closest: The moon will come within just under 222,000 miles (357,000 kilometers) of Earth.

Tides may be slightly higher during a supermoon because the moon is closer to Earth, said astronomer Lawrence Wasserman with Lowell Observatory. But the difference isn’t very noticeable.

No special equipment is needed to view the supermoon if clear skies permit. But the change in the moon’s size can be tough to discern with the naked eye.

“The difference is most obvious as a comparison between other images or observations,” said Shannon Schmoll, director of Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, in an email.

Supermoons happen a few times a year. One in October made the moon look somewhat larger, and another in December will be the last of the year.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW YORK — The Webb Space Telescope has spotted a new tiny moon orbiting Uranus.

The new member of the lunar gang, announced Tuesday by NASA, appears to be just six miles (10 kilometers) wide. It was spotted by the telescope’s near-infrared camera during observations in February.

Scientists think it hid for so long — even eluding the Voyager 2 spacecraft during its flyby about 40 years ago — because of its faintness and small size.

Uranus has 28 known moons that are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. About half are smaller and orbit the planet at closer range. This newest addition, still nameless, ups the planet’s total moon count to 29.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

DAKAR, Senegal — It’s the largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth — a 54-pound (25-kilogram) meteorite that fetched more than $5 million at a New York auction last month, setting a world record.

But in the West African nation of Niger, where the rusty-red rock was unearthed in the Sahara Desert, officials have launched an investigation into what they call possible “illicit international trafficking,” claiming it may have been smuggled out of the country.

Here’s what to know about the meteorite and the legal dispute:

Sotheby’s said the rock, named NWA 16788, was blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveled 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth.

It was discovered in the Sahara in northwestern Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, according to the auction house. His identity was not disclosed. Nor was the identity of the buyer last month.

Meteorite hunting is growing in arid Saharan countries like Niger. Though meteorites can fall anywhere on Earth, the Sahara has become a prime spot for their discovery in part due to the favorable climate for their preservation.

Hunters often search for space rocks that can be sold to collectors or scientists. The rarest and most precious are from Mars and the moon.

According to the Heritage academic journal, the rock was sold to an international dealer before it ended up in a private galley in Italy. A team of scientists from the University of Florence examined the rock last year to learn more about its structure and where it came from before falling to Earth, the publication said.

The meteorite was also briefly on display in Rome before it was next seen in public in New York last month during the auction.

Following the sale, Niger raised questions about how the meteorite came to be sold at auction.

Niger’s government announced an investigation last month to determine the circumstances of the meteorite’s discovery and sale, saying in a statement it was “akin to illicit international trafficking.”

Last week, President Abdourahamane Tiani suspended the export of “precious stones, semiprecious stones and meteorites nationwide” in an effort to ensure their traceability.

Sotheby’s said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the meteorite was exported from Niger and transported in line with all relevant international procedures.

“As with everything we sell, all necessary documentation was in order at each stage of its journey, in accordance with best practice and the requirements of the countries involved.” the statement read.

Authorities in Niger did not respond to AP questions.

Patty Gerstenblith, a cultural heritage lawyer and expert on illicit trade, said that under the UNESCO convention on cultural property — which Niger and the U.S. have ratified — rare minerals, like meteorites, can qualify as cultural property.

However, Gerstenblith said Niger needs to be able to prove it owned the meteorite and that it was stolen.

“If the meteorite was not stolen and if it was properly declared upon import into the U.S., then it would not seem that Niger can recover the meteorite,” she told the AP.

Paul Sereno, a paleontologist who has spent years uncovering dinosaur fossils in Niger’s Sahara, is campaigning to return the country’s cultural and natural heritage — including meteorites.

“When you have laws that clearly say rare minerals like meteorites are cultural artifacts, you cannot simply come in and take something that is so unique and valuable to a country,” he told the AP.

“We’re just not in the colonial era anymore,” he added.

Some countries, like Morocco, one of the leading sources of meteorites on the international market, require restitution if the objects are discovered on their territory. But enforcement has been challenging due to the vast desert areas and informal trading networks.