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The best shooting stars of the year should be visible on Sunday night (December 13) until the early hours of Monday (December 14).
That’s when the Geminid meteor shower expected to peak, according to Sky & Telescope magazine. This annual meteor shower gets its name because most of the meteors appear to emanate near the constellation Gemini. The space rocks come from an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is a rocky asteroid that breaks off as it orbits the sun. Some of the chunks of rock thrown by 3200 Phaethon are closed landThe atmosphere and burns, creating a spectacular light show every December.
“It’s worth facing the cold during the peak of this rain,” said Diana Hannikainen, observation editor for Sky & Telescope, said in a statement. “The Geminids offer the best display of ‘shooting stars’ throughout the year.”
Related: Dazzling Draconids: Pictures of a Meteor Shower
The show peaks around 8 p.m. EST on Sunday (December 13) evening (1 a.m. UTC on December 14) and should continue long after midnight. The radiant, or point from which most meteors will appear to emanate, will be at its peak above the horizon at 2 a.m. EST (7 a.m. UTC) on December 14, making for one of the best views. However, the radiant will be over the horizon for most Northern Hemisphere viewers on Sunday at 9pm EST (2am UTC), making for an excellent display even earlier in the evening. Even better, the moon is new on Sunday night, creating darker sky conditions.
“If you have a clear and dark sky with no light pollution, you might see a streak of meteorites in the sky every minute or two from 10 pm until dawn the night of the peak,” says Hannikainen.
Sky & Telescope offered these tips for successful meteor viewing:
- Find a dark place, away from city lights or other light pollution.
- Get out early; Allow your eyes to adjust for about 20 minutes to better see the weaker meteors.
- Look up at the darkest part of the sky, which is usually up. Meteorites can appear anywhere in the sky.
- Wrap!
- If it’s cloudy on Sunday night, don’t give up. Geminids can also be visible the night before and after the peak, with weaker meteors more likely on the night of December 13, and brighter meteors more likely on the night of December 14.
The debris you’ll see streaking through the sky is the size of sand or pea. These fragments break off 3,200 Phaethon as it approaches the sun, which heats its surface to about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius). The particles hit the Earth’s atmosphere at 79,000 mph (127,138 km / h) and vaporize due to air friction.
After the Geminids, the next chance to see meteor showers they will be the Ursids at the end of December and the Quadrantids from the end of December 2020 to the beginning of January 2021.
Originally posted on Live Science.
