Geminid Meteors

Over the next few nights the Gemini meteor shower is expected to peak.  The estimated rate could be around 120 per hour so if you have a few minutes to spare away from the street lights you might see something.  We’re particularly lucky this year as it is the new moon so the background sky will be slightly darker.

You should be able to see meteors over all points of the sky, but their paths will all trace back to somewhere near the star Castor, one of the twins in the constellation of Gemini, hence the name.  The meteor show is caused by Earth passing through a cloud of material left by the 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid.  Most annual meteor showers are caused by debris left by a comet so 3200 Phaethon is quite unusual, and even though it gets close to the Sun it’s never shown typical comet-like features such as the long, dramatic tail we would expect.

If you are interested in heading out and trying to see anything, wrap up warm and here are some great tips from the Bad Astronomy blog.  They were written for another meteor shower, but everything applies to the Geminids too.

And if you can’t make it outside, it’s cloudy or you live in the middle of a city, here’s a photo of a Geminid meteor from 2009 taken in the Mojave desert so you don’t feel left out.   

 

Image credit: Wally Pacholka/TWAN and found via National Geographic