Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- Look up at the skies from 2 to 7:30 a.m. on December 14 to see the most meteors.
- To get the best view, travel away from city lights, avoid looking at your phone and let your eyes adjust to the dark.
- Stargazers might also be able to catch a glimpse of a comet making a rare appearance, NASA astronomers say.
Look up to the sky during the early hours of December 14 to see what’s likely to be the best meteor shower of 2018.
The Geminid meteor shower will be visible from most parts of the planet, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere in areas with clear, dark skies. Stargazers will first be able to see it after tonight’s sunset, and NASA estimates the shower to peak around 2 a.m., your local time. That’s when the quarter-moon will have set, providing particularly dark conditions, unlike in 2017 when a “super moon” made it hard to see the shower. At tomorrow’s peak, viewers may see up to 100 meteors per hour.
The meteors come from an object called 3200 Phaethon. Every December, Earth passes through a massive cloud of debris shed by the object, causing dust and grit to burn up and illuminate as “shooting stars” in the atmosphere. Since it was first recorded from a riverboat on the Mississippi River in 1833, the…
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