Tonight: Geminid Meteor Shower Expected

The Geminid meteor shower takes place each December, and this year experts say we can expect the display to start tonight [Dec 13] continuing into the pre dawn hours of tomorrow.

The meteors in this shower appear to come from a radiant in the constellation Gemini, hence the shower’s name. The meteors travel at medium speed in relation to other showers, at about 22 miles per second.

Meteors are the result of a comet’s surface melting as it loops around the Sun, leaving a trail of dust and icy particles that eventually spread completely around the comet’s orbit. When the earth passes through this orbit the high speed particles enter and are vaporized in the Earth’s atmosphere, seen by us as shooting stars or meteors.

Geza Gyuk, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois, said “The Geminids have been slowly getting better over the past years, making it one of the best showers. And it has become very reliable, so we can expect a fairly nice show.”

According to the National Geographic, the main peak of activity will center from midnight tonight, to the early morning hours of tomorrow [Dec 14].

Eddie McGonagle of the Astronomical Society of Bermuda says that “he is ever hopeful that one night, we in Bermuda, will be in the right place at the right time to see one of the spectacular meteor displays that have been reported elsewhere. When this happens, and it will, I don’t want to have someone claim….why weren’t we told.”

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