Peak Of Geminids Meteor Shower Hits Sunday Night | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-09.15.25

AirborneNextGen-
09.09.25

Airborne-Unlimited-09.10.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-09.11.25

AirborneUnlimited-09.12.25

Sun, Dec 13, 2009

Peak Of Geminids Meteor Shower Hits Sunday Night

Shooting Stars To Light Up Night Skies

Don't be startled if you see some bright flashes in the night sky over the next few days; the Geminids meteor shower is in progress. NASA expects the fiery lightshow to peak the night of December 13/14 (9:10 pm PST/12:10 am EST/05:10 UT), coinciding with a nearly perfect new moon.

"You could expect to see over 100 meteors per hour during the peak viewing," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "During the late evening hours of December 13, look for streaks of light radiating from a point near the star Castor in the constellation of Gemini, which will be high above the eastern horizon for mid-northern latitudes."

While a sign of the zodiac may have provided the name for the meteor shower, scientists have established the source as something more tangible. "We do know that the origin of the Geminids is a Near-Earth object called 3200 Phaeton," said Yeomans. "It is probably the remains of a comet that has burned off its ices after eons looping throughout the solar system. Phaeton has a trail of pebble and dust-sized debris that stream out behind it. Once every mid-December, Earth's orbit carries it into this stream of debris."

Since all other meteors showers are due to the sand-sized particles from active comets, it seems reasonable to assume that Phaeton is, or at least was, a comet. However, Phaeton has shown no cometary activity, so it is classified as an asteroid - the only asteroid to have an associated meteor shower.

"It is important to note that the orbits of Earth and Phaethon itself will not intersect," added Yeomans. "There is no chance the two will meet. But the result of our planet flying through its debris field is an opportunity for science and the chance to see Mother Nature at her best."

FMI www.NASA.gov

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Evektor-Aerotechnik A S Harmony LSA

Improper Installation Of The Fuel Line That Connected The Fuel Pump To The Four-Way Distributor Analysis: The airplane was on the final leg of a flight to reposition it to its home>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (09.15.25): Decision Altitude (DA)

Decision Altitude (DA) A specified altitude (mean sea level (MSL)) on an instrument approach procedure (ILS, GLS, vertically guided RNAV) at which the pilot must decide whether to >[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (09.15.25)

“With the arrival of the second B-21 Raider, our flight test campaign gains substantial momentum. We can now expedite critical evaluations of mission systems and weapons capa>[...]

Airborne 09.12.25: Bristell Cert, Jetson ONE Delivery, GAMA Sales Report

Also: Potential Mars Biosignature, Boeing August Deliveries, JetBlue Retires Final E190, Av Safety Awareness Czech plane maker Bristell was awarded its first FAA Type Certification>[...]

Airborne 09.10.25: 1000 Hr B29 Pilot, Airplane Pile-Up, Haitian Restrictions

Also: Commercial A/C Certification, GMR Adds More Bell 429s, Helo Denial, John “Lucky” Luckadoo Flies West CAF’s Col. Mark Novak has accumulated more than 1,000 f>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC