WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) — One of the year’s best meteor showers, the Geminids, will be on full display this weekend, as the trail of debris falling off the tail of asteroid 3200 Phaethon collides with Earth’s upper atmosphere.
While the warm weather offers a more comfortable setting for much-anticipated meteor showers like the Perseids and Arietids, the annual cold-weather arrival of Geminids often exceeds the expectations of sky-gazers — outperforming its peers with upwards of 60 shooting stars per hour.
Though the meteor shower will be at its peak in the wee hours of Saturday morning, both nights will features a large number of shooting stars. Though the meteors may flash all across the night sky, most will appear to originate from the constellation Gemini — hence the name.
While the action of a meteor shower seems to offer the most agency to the meteors themselves, the nighttime show is just as much about Earth’s atmosphere hitting the cosmic debris as it is about space rocks hurtling toward Earth.
Though the space rocks are moving at 79,000 mph, they’re not headed toward Earth so much as Earth is getting in the way. The space rubble moves in a long elliptical path, following the path of Phaethon, which completes its uneven and elongated orbit around the sun every 1.4 years. Every year, Earth’s orbit crosses paths with the belt of rubble.
The Geminds are unusual in that they are the product of an asteroid. Most asteroids stick to the outer reaches of the solar system, leaving comets to handle most of the nighttime entertainment. Phaethon looks like an asteroid — and is an asteroid, made of mostly rock (not ice) — but acts more like a comet.
If the weather fails to cooperate on Saturday or Sunday, sky-watchers can curl up by the fire and check out the Geminids online via NASA or the Slooh Community Observatory.
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