Geminid meteor shower peaks in the next few days

Geminid meteor shower peaks in the next few days, filling your sky with shooting stars.

Above: Geminids, on the dark of the Chilean Atacama Desert over ESO’s Paranal Observatory.   Image credit Stéphane Guisard (Los Cielos de America), TWAN

From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, above your local eastern horizon late in the evening, this year’s best meteor shower, peaks in the next few days.could be quite spectacular.

Geminid meteors travel slowly and burn up in the atmosphere with a bright yellowish hue.

The Geminid meteor shower caused by the object 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid with a “rock comet” orbit. This would make the Geminids, together with the Quadrantids, the only major meteor showers not originating from a comet. The meteors from this shower are slow moving, can be seen in December and usually peak around December 13–14, with the date of highest intensity being the morning of December 14. The shower is thought to be intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120–160 meteors per hour under optimal conditions, generally around 02:00 to 03:00 local time. Geminids were first observed in 1862, much more recently than other showers such as the Perseids (36 AD) and Leonids (902 AD).

source wikipedia