STARGAZERS can catch up to 150 shooting stars an hour this week as the Geminid meteor shower moves across the sky.
The Geminids are considered the brightest and most active meteor show of the year.
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The annual event runs from December 4th to 20th.
However, the peak is between Friday and Sunday (December 13th and 15th) – this is when you will see the most meteors per hour.
While they are most common in the Northern Hemisphere, Geminids can be found worldwide.
The Geminids often appear multicolored, casting white, yellow, green, red and blue streaks across the sky.
According to Dr. Shyam Balaji, an astroparticle physics and cosmology researcher at King's College London, the rainbow light show is caused by the presence of various metals in the meteoroids.
“These elements burn up in Earth's atmosphere, creating bright and colorful streaks,” he added.
Why can meteors be multicolored?
Meteors can take on all sorts of colors when they burn up, depending on what they're made of.
The chemical composition of a meteor can mean the difference between whether it glows blue-green, orange-yellow or even violet.
When a meteor turns a bright green or blue color, it's because it contains magnesium.
If it burns orange-yellow, then its composition contains sodium.
If it's just yellow, it's made of iron.
If it glows purple, it contains a lot of calcium.
If it is red, it is most likely the result of glowing air plasma or atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen.
How to recognize the twins
Thanks to their nearly 24-hour peak period, the Geminids can be seen both at night and before dawn.
Although they are still visible outside the summit.
In the UK and US they become active around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. local time.
But Dr. Balaji suggested going outside a little later to get an even better view.
“The best time to watch the Geminid meteor shower is around 2 a.m. local time,” he said. “When the radiation point is highest in the sky.”
These space rocks appear to come from the constellation of the same name, Gemini.
If you can't find Gemini in the sky, try a sky mapping app like Night Sky.
Binoculars and telescopes are not necessary as they limit the size of the sky you can see.
But give your eyes at least an hour to adjust to the darkness so you can see the fainter meteors.
That means hanging up the phone.
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What is the difference between an asteroid, a meteor and a comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to NASA:
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter), but they can be found anywhere (including on a path that can hit Earth).
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids collide, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: When a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vaporize and then becomes a meteor. On Earth it will look like a streak of light in the sky because the rock is burning
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid does not completely vaporize and survive the flight through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on Earth. At this point it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the sun. However, a comet is not made up mostly of rock, but contains a lot of ice and gas, which can cause amazing tails to form behind it (thanks to the evaporation of ice and dust).
