Geminid meteor shower which is considered the best of this year reached its peak last night. Space enthusiasts around the world also witnessed an extraordinary performance. The annual Geminid meteor shower occurs in mid-December. Meteor shower occurs when Earth passed wave of space rock fragments. When small stones are flying into the atmosphere, they burn and create a scene like a shooting star. Geminid meteors can be seen in the next few days, although the peak has passed. Experts estimate there are 120 meteors per hour at the peak.
Geminid meteor shower is the loveliest. Unlike other meteor showers come from comets, Geminid come from the asteroid fragments 3200 Phantheon. With a more dense particle than comets, Geminids produce shooting stars that are brighter, more numerous and slowly. In cloud-free sky conditions, we can see 60 stars fall in one hour.
For those of you who missed this spectacular show, do not worry. With a record of cloud-free sky, the Geminid meteor shower has been continuing the "Show Time" tonight. After that, probably, the intensity of shooting stars will decrease until it completely disappeared 17th of December.
image source: spaceweather.com
Meteor shower like this is a real beauty for an astrophile, like me.
ReplyDeleteDropping by with a smile. Happy new year.