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The annual Geminid meteor display is expected to peak on Wednesday night. With up to 100 meteors per hour visible from a dark site, the Geminids rival the Perseids in August for the title of best meteor display of the year.
The paths of Geminid meteors appear to point back to a spot near the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini, giving the shower its name.
For observers at mid-northern latitudes, this spot – called the radiant – will be almost directly overhead between 0100 and 0200 local time the night of 13–14 December, when the display should reach its peak. But the entire meteor shower runs from 6 to 18 December.
Observers in the southern hemisphere can spot some Geminid meteors, but will not see nearly as rich a display as those in the northern hemisphere.
Dried-up comet?
Although the meteors will point back towards Gemini, they can appear anywhere in the sky. For the best results, do not stare directly at the radiant, but watch as large a patch of the sky as possible, ideally centred on a spot about 45° away.
Later in the evening, the Moon will be up. From a darker site, its glare will noticeably reduce the number of meteors you can spot, so try to keep it out of view behind a tree or a building.
Most meteor showers are caused by the Earth ramming into a cloud of rocky debris left behind by a comet decades or centuries earlier. The debris, most of which is smaller than a pebble, hits the atmosphere at blistering speed, burning up and leaving the bright trails that we see as "shooting stars".
The Geminids are unusual, however, because they follow the path of an object that appears to be an asteroid. Called 3200 Phaethon, it was discovered in 1983 by NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).
Because its orbit takes it into the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 3200 Phaethon may have collided with another large space rock there. The resulting debris could have spread along its orbit around the Sun, creating a trail that would produce the Geminid meteors.
Alternatively, it is possible that 3200 Phaethon is a comet that lost all of its ice after too many close passes by the Sun. In that case, the object has nothing left to vaporize to produce the glowing tail normally associated with comets and the meteors would be produced by material shed from the comet long ago.
Maybe THIS time I will be able to check it out.....unlike last time where it clouded up on the night of the main event....
The paths of Geminid meteors appear to point back to a spot near the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini, giving the shower its name.
For observers at mid-northern latitudes, this spot – called the radiant – will be almost directly overhead between 0100 and 0200 local time the night of 13–14 December, when the display should reach its peak. But the entire meteor shower runs from 6 to 18 December.
Observers in the southern hemisphere can spot some Geminid meteors, but will not see nearly as rich a display as those in the northern hemisphere.
Dried-up comet?
Although the meteors will point back towards Gemini, they can appear anywhere in the sky. For the best results, do not stare directly at the radiant, but watch as large a patch of the sky as possible, ideally centred on a spot about 45° away.
Later in the evening, the Moon will be up. From a darker site, its glare will noticeably reduce the number of meteors you can spot, so try to keep it out of view behind a tree or a building.
Most meteor showers are caused by the Earth ramming into a cloud of rocky debris left behind by a comet decades or centuries earlier. The debris, most of which is smaller than a pebble, hits the atmosphere at blistering speed, burning up and leaving the bright trails that we see as "shooting stars".
The Geminids are unusual, however, because they follow the path of an object that appears to be an asteroid. Called 3200 Phaethon, it was discovered in 1983 by NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).
Because its orbit takes it into the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 3200 Phaethon may have collided with another large space rock there. The resulting debris could have spread along its orbit around the Sun, creating a trail that would produce the Geminid meteors.
Alternatively, it is possible that 3200 Phaethon is a comet that lost all of its ice after too many close passes by the Sun. In that case, the object has nothing left to vaporize to produce the glowing tail normally associated with comets and the meteors would be produced by material shed from the comet long ago.
Maybe THIS time I will be able to check it out.....unlike last time where it clouded up on the night of the main event....
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