{"id":340333,"date":"2025-12-12T10:31:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/how-to-watch-the-geminid-meteor-shower-which-peaks-this-weekend\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:31:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:31:03","slug":"how-to-watch-the-geminid-meteor-shower-which-peaks-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=340333","title":{"rendered":"How to Watch the Geminid Meteor Shower, Which Peaks This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A waning crescent moon should make for a fairly dark sky, allowing viewers to see up to 150 shooting stars per hour<\/h2>\n
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Sara Hashemi<\/a><\/p>\n

– Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Geminid meteor shower in 2017
\n Jeff Sullivan via Flickr under \tCC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/span>
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Skywatchers, rejoice. It\u2019s once again time to watch what is often considered the best and brightest meteor shower of the year.<\/p>\n

The Geminids will peak this weekend\u2014from the night of December 13 into the morning of December 14\u2014lighting up our skies with colorful, glowing streaks. If conditions are just right, you can spot up to 150 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society.<\/a><\/p>\n

The best strategy to see these fast, typically yellow \u201cshooting stars\u201d is to find a dark location free of light pollution and eye the sky from around 10 P.M. until dawn, per NASA<\/a>. Give your eyes about 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness and avoid looking at your phone. Spotting meteors can be a waiting game, so make sure to stay patient and wrap yourself in proper winter gear.<\/p>\n

The meteors should soon stand out, streaking across the sky at 21 miles per second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other stars are going to be all stationary, so you\u2019ll see this moving across the sky, and it\u2019ll leave a little tail behind it,\u201d says Bethany Cobb Kung<\/a>, an astronomer at George Washington University, to Adithi Ramakrishnan at the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the meteors look like they originate from the constellation Gemini\u2014a location called a \u201cradiant\u201d\u2014your best bet is to not look directly towards that smattering of stars, but 45 degrees away from it, per the Planetary Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the moon will be a waning crescent that night, only around 30 percent full. Keep in mind that moonrise will be around 2 A.M. local time, which could interfere a bit with your viewing party.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotential observers have the choice to observe prior to moonrise or to look toward the west with the moon at their back after 2 A.M.,\u201d says Robert Lunsford<\/a>, the journal editor of the American Meteor Society, to Stefanie Waldek at\u00a0National Geographic<\/em><\/a>. \u201cSince the strongest rates occur near 2 A.M., most people will face eastward before that time, then swing around to the west after it to avoid having the moonlight affect their night vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Geminids are special for more than just providing a spectacular light show. While most meteor showers originate from comets\u2014icy objects that formed beyond the solar system\u2014this event comes from what researchers think is an asteroid, a rock born within the sun\u2019s domain. Specifically, the Geminids occur when Earth passes through the trail of asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1983.<\/p>\n

The asteroid trail contains bigger, harder chunks than what\u2019s in the tail of a comet, National Geographic<\/em> reports. \u201cThis material is larger, on average, and survives further into our atmosphere and tends to produce brighter meteors,\u201d Lunsford tells the outlet. \u201cWhen these metals are heated during the passage through our atmosphere, they produce colors associated with each type of metal.\u201d For example, yellow comes from iron and sodium, blue comes from magnesium and orange comes from calcium and silicon. \u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Phaethon displays characteristics of both comets and asteroids, leaving scientists stumped. Some astronomers suspect it could be a \u201cdead comet\u201d\u2014one whose ice has melted\u2014or even a new type of object called a \u201crock comet,\u201d according to NASA.<\/p>\n

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Quick fact: Clues about Phaethon<\/h4>\n

Comets have tails because the sun vaporizes their ices. But as an iceless asteroid, Phaethon shouldn\u2019t have anything resembling a tail. A study published in 2023 suggests that Phaethon\u2019s trail is made of sodium gas<\/a> rather than the heated dust in comets\u2019 tails.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Japanese spacecraft\u00a0DESTINY<\/a>+ is set to study the odd asteroid in the next few years, which should give scientists more information about this mysterious object.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t venture outside this weekend, don\u2019t worry. The Geminids will grace our skies again next December, and there are plenty of meteor showers to come. The earliest will be the Ursids<\/a>, which will peak just before Christmas.<\/p>\n

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