The largest and most impressive meteor shower -- called the 'Geminid' shower -- will occur this year on Dec. 13-14th. So bundle up if it's cold and go out and take a look.
Best viewing is after midnight until dawn on the Dec. 14th.
Of course, if in your area the night is cloudy, you're out of luck. :(
Otherwise, you can expect about 120 meteor streaks per hour, and possibly some large fireballs.
The other meteor showers during the year (like the Perseids) are believed to be caused by debris shed by comets during their orbits around our sun. The interesting part about the Geminid shower (named because it appears to be centered around the constellation Gemini) is that it's known to come from a particular weird object named 3200 Phaethon, which doesn't appear to shed nearly enough material to account for the year's largest meteor shower.
Information at: http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-geminid-meteor-shower-defies-explanation.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment