If you're stargazing this week, you have a chance to see brilliant streaks across the sky as the Geminid meteor shower peaks.
The Geminids, which are bright and have a yellow hue, are considered one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers, when at least 120 meteors are usually seen per hour during its peak, NASA says.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks in the middle of December, with the most activity this year expected late Friday and into early Saturday, according to NASA.
Unlike other meteors, which originate from comets, the Geminids are thought to come from an asteroid — 3200 Phaethon — which is nearly 3 miles across and orbits the sun every 1.4 years. It was discovered Oct. 11, 1983, and is named after Phaethon, the child of sun god Helios in Greek mythology who drove his father's chariot close to the sun. In the night sky, the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation Gemini, where the Geminids get their name.
While the Geminids are one of the most anticipated astronomical events, this year astronomers are warning not to get your hopes up too high for a cosmic show of shooting stars.
Here's why — and how you can best maximize your chances.
The Geminids are competing with a full moon
The Cold Moon, the last full moon of the year, will rise on Saturday and its brightness will outshine some of the shooting stars that are normally visible with the Geminids. The moon's brightness is predicted to cut visibility by 50% to 75%, Bill Cooke, lead of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., tells NPR. If you're in the U.S., you can expect to see about 15 Geminids per hour, compared to the usual 120.
And the rate of the Geminids will drop to "practically zero" by Monday night, Cooke says.
If you end up giving it a shot, here are some viewing tips
The Geminids are best viewed during the night and predawn hours and are visible around the world.
Beginning Thursday, you may see more meteors in the night sky.
While there is a chance that the light of the full moon will wash out dimmer meteors, you will still be able to see some, Dakotah Tyler, a doctoral candidate in astronomy and astrophysics at UCLA who studies exoplanets, tells NPR.
"Getting away from city light pollution and allowing your eyes to adjust to the darker conditions for 15-20 mins will help increase your sensitivity," Tyler says, adding that you don't need a telescope to see them. "A telescope would actually narrow your field of view too much and probably cause you to miss out on a bunch of bright meteors which, while coming from a predictable direction, will still be scattered in their arrival."
He also says to be patient.
"Get a nice little blanket, maybe a speaker and some hot cocoa and enjoy checking out some billions of year-old space rocks burning up in our nice cozy atmosphere," Tyler says.
If you have a clear sky, you will also be able to see bright meteors "by facing a direction with the moon at your back," according to the American Meteor Society."
Next year will be better
If you don't see as many Geminids as you'd hoped — or any at all — you'll have a better chance to see them in December 2025, according to NASA.
The full moon that month will occur on Dec. 4, 2025, earlier than when the Geminids are expected to peak mid-December and when the moon will be waning and not as bright.
As for this year, there's one more meteor shower: the Ursids, which will peak between Dec. 21, the day of the winter solstice, and the early morning hours of Dec. 22. But the light from the moon, which will be waning, will also spoil this meteor shower, which normally gives stargazers a chance to see at least 5 to 10 meteors per hour.
This also is a good time to see some planets in our solar system, including Mars, which is getting closer to Earth each night and will become a little bit brighter each night with its reddish, yellow glow, Tyler says.
And with a telescope or binoculars, Tyler says, you might even be able to see Saturn's rings.
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