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A Geminid meteor is visible in the sky at the Yulong Snow Mountain in southwest China in 2021. This year, the Geminids will peak on Thursday.
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Observers will soon have the chance to see more meteors streaking across the sky when the annual Geminid shower takes place in its crescendo.
The Geminds are set to top up, or show more activity, at 2:27 pm ET Thursday, according to EarthSky. The best time to view the celestial show will be early that morning between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. in any time zone, said Robert Lunsford, the organizer. fireball report for the American Meteor Society.
In an area with a clear view and no interfering light from the full moon, NASA estimates Geminids can offer up to 120 visible meteors per hour, making them the most powerful annual showers, or “kings of meteor showers,” as Lunsford calls them. At this time of year, the moon will be 1% full Wednesday night into Thursday, according to societyallowing meteors to take center stage.
“It depends on where you look at it. If you are in the middle of the desert, or on a mountain top, it is very possible (to see 120 meteors). If you’re in the backyard, no,” Lunsford said.
In fact, a backyard viewer after midnight in a location away from light pollution will see an average of 60 meteors in the hour, he added.
The meteor will be visible from anywhere in the world, but those in the Southern Hemisphere will have a short time to see it, said Lunsford. This is because the constellation Gemini – the bright Geminids, or the area where meteors appear to originate – will be low in the sky and is expected to rise after midnight.
At the beginning of this year, using data from NASA’s continuous Parker Solar Probe missionAstronomers discovered that the Geminid meteors – made of debris from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon – appear to have been created by a violent conflict between the asteroid and another space rock or a type of explosive gas, according to a study published in The Planetary Science Journal. The first observation of a meteor shower was made in 1862.
Geminid meteors are known to be very bright and sometimes colored due to their chemical composition. Some of these empty rocks may contain more calcium, sodium or nickel than others, so a meteor in this shower may appear orange or yellow, or even green, the story says. said Lunsford.
The Geminids have been seen streaking across the sky since November and appear to be increasing in number as Earth nears the center of the 3200 Phaethon debris cloud. If the visibility conditions are obscured by bad weather, the shower will still have high prices a few days before and after the peak, Lunsford said.
“Grab yourself a lawn chair and find the darkest spot in your yard and look about halfway up to the sky in a direction that avoids trees or anything, so you can it’s visible almost down to the horizon,” Lunsford said. “And just sit back and enjoy the show. You’ll see the Geminid meteors shooting in all directions.
The next and last annual meteor shower of 2023 is the Ursids, which will peak on the night of December 21 through the early hours of December 22, according to the American Meteor Society.