If you said, “mesmerizing displays of firy rock shooting across the night sky”, you’d only be half right. When the Earth passes through one of these orbits, the debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up upon entry and creating bright streaks of light through the sky.
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In addition to “glowing white” streaks, viewers in the past have been described seeing streaks appearing yellow, green, or blue, NASA said. For best viewing, try and find an open area away from city lights. However, the meteors are actually small pieces of debris from an object called 3200 Phaethon, which NASA classifies as an extinct comet. “Typically what happens is we are going through the tail of a comet and that supplies the meteors in a meteor shower”.
The peak of the shower is Sunday night through early Monday morning, with the absolute best time to see them at 11pm PT Sunday. A host of chemicals in the meteors act and produce different colors as they burn up while penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere. Although skygazers from all around the world will be able to sight this incredible cosmic phenomenon, experts believe the shower is expected to predominantly light up the Northern Hemisphere. Look up to the sky at around 8 or 9 pm and you can see the shower in any direction.
The best time to view the Geminids is between sunset, local time and before sunrise.
But for those who fearless the cold, there are plenty of wishes to be made with the Geminids.
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Unfortunately, inclement weather in parts of the United States may make it hard to see the shower. “We’ll also tell you all about how you can hear meteors as well as see them, and give you a quick tutorial on taking your own meteor images”. While coming from the southwest, the shower is so far away that it will appear to take up the whole sky. This means that Europe and Eastern North America will have the best seats on Earth as the Geminids really kick in under the darkest overnight hours.
