It’s time for the last big meteor shower of the year. One of the most active and reliable meteor showers, the Geminids regularly host about 120 meteors per hour when observed from a dark site.
And although they are visible from December 4th to 20th, they reach their peak on the night of December 14th.
The Geminids are also notable for not originating from a comet. Instead, they were tracked to Phaethon, a strangely active asteroid. This results in dust particles that are denser than most meteors and that have a tendency to explosively break up into smaller fragments as they burn up in the atmosphere.
Admittedly, compared to other meteor showers, Geminids move rather slowly, making them easier to spot as they tend to stay in the sky longer.
The chart shows the view looking east from London at 2100 GMT on December 14. From the northern hemisphere, the Geminids are notable because they are often active before midnight, making them easily visible to even casual observers.
From the southern hemisphere, the radiant – the point in the sky where the meteors appear to originate and then radiate in all directions from this point – rises around midnight but never rises high into the sky. This greatly reduces the number of visible meteors.
