Dec 9, 2024
Whizzing meteors may regularly fill the skies, but avid stargazers have likely had the date of one meteor shower's peak circled on their calendars all year according to this from usatoday.com.
The Geminids, one of the final meteor showers of 2024 to reach its annual peak, is also considered among astronomers and meteor enthusiasts to be the one of the year's best cosmic displays. The meteor shower, which reliably peaks every year around mid-December, is famed for its strong, bright and consistent shooting stars.
If conditions are just right, stargazers have the opportunity to witness a dizzying 120 meteors per hour when activity is at its highest. What's more, the meteors produced by the Geminids' parent asteroid have a reputation for being colorful, sometimes appearing as yellowish streaks.
Here's what to know about the Geminids meteor shower, including when it peaks and what causes it.
When can you see the Geminid meteor shower?
The Geminids are active now and will remain so through Dec. 21.
The peak activity, however, is forecasted for Thursday, Dec. 12 and Friday, Dec. 13, according to the American Meteor Society.
The days before and after might be good for viewing as well, though an almost-full moon may compete with the bright fireballs, according to Earth Sky.
What makes the Geminids special is that they are one of the best opportunities for young stargazers to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower without staying up well past their bedtime.
While the shower is best viewed during the night and predawn hours, activity typically begins around 9 or 10 p.m., according to NASA. And the shower is visible across the globe.
How to watch the Geminids
The Geminids are named after the constellation Gemini because the meteors seem to emerge – or radiate – from the same area in the sky.
However, NASA advises stargazers to look away from the constellation to get the best views as meteors should be visible across the night sky.
Here are some general viewing tips from the space agency:
Find an area well away from street lights and the light pollution of cities.
Come prepared for winter temperatures with a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair.
Lie flat on your back with your feet facing the south and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible.
It should take less than 30 minutes for your eyes to adapt so that you can see streaking meteors.
What causes the Geminid meteor shower?
Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through dusty debris trails left by comets and other space objects as they orbit the sun. The debris – space rocks known as meteoroids – collides with Earth's atmosphere at high speed and disintegrates, creating fiery and colorful streaks in the sky, according to NASA.
Those resulting fireballs, better known as "shooting stars," are meteors. If meteoroids survive their trip to Earth without burning up in the atmosphere, they are called meteorites, NASA says.
Unlike most meteor showers, the Geminid meteor shower doesn't originate from a comet, but from an asteroid.
That asteroid, 3200 Phaethon, is believed to have broken apart under the stresses of the asteroid's rotation, which caused it to eject billions of tons of dust and debris into the solar system, according to NASA. The small asteroid, which is more than 3 miles in diameter, approaches so close to the sun that it was named for the son of the sun-god Helios, who in Greek mythology lost control of his father's chariot and set the Earth ablaze.
While it is now one of the year's strongest meteor showers, the Geminids didn't start out that way, according to NASA. When the shower first began appearing in the mid-1800s, only 10 to 20 meteors could be seen per hour.
Share this article with friends!
Tags:
#asteroid #geminid #meteorshower #astrology
