NASA’s “best meteor shower” will be available to sky-gazers this evening. Up to 50 shooting stars are expected to be visible over the UK at any given hour.
Geminid Meteor Shower occurs every year from December 4 to December 17. It will reach its peak tonight and tomorrow.
The dust from asteroid 3200 Phaethon’s trails is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. This dust creates a shower called’shooting star’.
Geminids, as their name suggests, are named after where they were born in the constellation Gemini.
Skygazers can enjoy this evening’s Geminid Meteor Shower (pictured in 2017). There are up to 50 shooting star per hour that will be visible over the UK.
Geminid Meteor Shower occurs every year from December 4 through December 17. It will reach its peak tonight and tomorrow.
The dust from asteroid 3200 Phaethon’s trails is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. This dust creates a shower called’shooting star’.
Bill Cooke (head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office) stated that Geminids were rich in green-colored fireballs and are therefore the only shower I’ll brave the cold December nights for.
Tonight star gazers around the world have a chance to catch the spectacular display, with meteors shooting through the sky at speeds of up to 78,000 miles an hour — 40 times faster than a speeding bullet.
Geminid showers are usually visible during the early evening hours. However, this year the waxing gibbous will be visible above the horizon in peak viewing times.
If the meteor strikes shortly thereafter, any person who has been watching dark-sky locations at 2am MST should be able see them.
Peak time on Tuesday is 3am and dawn.
The reason for this is because the shower’s radiant point – the point in our sky from which the meteors seem to radiate – is highest at that time.
The higher Gemini Twins rises in the sky, the more likely that observers will see Geminid meteors.
For sky-seers that don’t wish to wake up early, the Geminids can be seen even in darkness. The brighter ones, however, will still catch them.
Although people in the Northern Hemisphere have better views of the meteor shower than those living in the Southern Hemisphere, there are still shooting stars visible from both sides.
On a good night, up to 50 meteors per hour will be visible over the UK. However, it’s possible to view closer to 150 in 60 minutes.
As they travel through the sky, meteors emit bright colors of yellow, red, green, and blue. The brightest ones leave glowing trails.
It is anticipated that the shower will last until December 17th, but shooting stars frequency will slowly decrease following tonight.
Meteors are small fragments of interplanetary debris that radiate out from the constellation Gemini near Castor, the bright star.
Because of friction with the upper atmosphere, the incoming particles heat up and cause the air to glow brightly.
It is possible to observe the Geminids at their peak between 2am to 3am tomorrow. The reason for this is because the shower’s radiant point – the point in our sky from which the meteors seem to radiate – is highest at that time
Overnight, 50 to 100 meteors are possible to be seen above the UK. But it is possible for up to 150 to be visible in 60 minutes on a night that has the Geminids at their best.
Tonight star gazers around the world have a chance to catch the spectacular display, with meteors shooting through the sky at speeds of up to 78,000 miles an hour — 40 times faster than a speeding bullet
Geminids get their name from the constellation where they originate.
The Geminid shower usually appears in the evening, however this year, a waxing gibbous Moon will rise above the horizon at peak viewing hours.
These streaks are known as shooting stars because they emit light in a continuous pattern.
Meteors that are associated with showers have identical orbits and appear to all come from the same spot in the sky. This is known as the radiant.
While the Geminid meteor Shower was initially reported in 1862 by scientists, it was only 1983 when 3200 Phaethon became apparent.
Phaethon can be considered either an extinct comet or an asteroids. The three-mile wide Phaethon travels around Earth once every 1.4 year and loses some of its dust when it reaches Earth’s parent star.
This dusty material can range in size from a small sand grain up to a large pea.
NASA posted in a blog that despite the poor viewing conditions this year, the Geminid meteorshower will still be visible in the night sky.