Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks
Did you see it? The Geminids Meteor Shower peaked on Sunday and Monday night, dazzling stargazers with more than 100 meteors every hour. There’s still time to catch the show
(if the clouds cooperate), as the shower continues through Thursday, December 17. During its activity (December 4-17), the shower begins around 9 p.m. and lasts until dawn. The meteors are bright and fast and appear yellow in color. Just find a spot away from city or street lights, lay down on your back with your feet to the south and look up. You’ll start to see the lights as your eyes adjust to the darkness.
The Geminids first appeared in the mid-1800s, though the first showers provided far fewer meteors to view per hour, around 10-20. The shower has grown to be one of the best and most reliable annual astronomical events, thanks to Jupiter’s gravity pushing the debris stream ever-closer to Earth. The Geminids are unique to most other meteor showers, which tend to originate from comets. These come from a larger, rockier body: the 3200 Phaethon Asteroid. Its orbit takes it around the Sun every 1.4 years, and its elliptical orbit brings it close to the sun as part of its yearly journey. That close solar approach earned Phaethon its name, after the character of Greek mythology who drove sun-god Helios’ chariot. It’s a relatively small asteroid, about 3.17 miles across, but it’s undeniable that even this small rock produces a most spectacular meteor shower each year. Pieces that break off of Phaethon form the Geminid meteoroids, creating a dusty cloud of debris around it. Every year, Earth passes through the debris trails, allowing the pieces of rock to collide with the atmosphere. There, they disintegrate and create fiery streaks of light in
our night sky.
As their name suggests, the Geminids’ Radiant (a term referring to the point in the sky from which they appear to originate) is the constellation Gemini. Though they appear to originate within the constellation, Gemini is not the
source of the meteors. It simply helps meteor shower viewers determine what they’re viewing any given night. Don’t look to the constellation to view the Geminids. They’re visible across the entire night sky, so make sure you’re looking at the widest array of sky that you can to catch a glimpse of the balls of light. The Geminids travel at 22 miles
per second, or 79,000 mph.
As you prepare to check out the meteor shower that continues this week, take a moment to glance at the southwestern horizon at sunset. There, you’ll see Jupiter and Saturn glowing bright in the sky, inching closer together as they head towards a rare conjunction later
this month. On December 21, the two will appear so close together in our sky that they’ll be impossible to separate with the naked eye. As they grow closer in the days that follow, we will be treated to our very own Christmas Star. Watch for more about the upcoming Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in the Times-Record Dec. 1820 Weekend Edition.