Best Meteor Shower of 2007 Peaks Dec. 13
The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the famous Perseids of August.
Studies of past find the "Gems" have a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful meteors and fireballs as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness.
They are of medium speed, encountering Earth at 22 miles per second (35 kps). They are bright and white, but unlike the Perseids, they leave few visible trails or streaks.
They are four times denser than most other meteors, and have been observed to form jagged or divided paths.
Geminids also stand apart from the other meteor showers in that they seem to have been spawned not by a comet, but by 3200 Phaethon, an Earth-crossing asteroid.
Then again, the Geminids may be comet debris after all, for some astronomers consider Phaethon to really be the dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow got trapped into an unusually tight orbit.
Interestingly, on Dec. 10, Phaethon will be passing about 11 million miles (18 million kilometers) from Earth, its closest approach since its discovery in 1983.
The Geminids perform excellently in any year, but British meteor astronomer, Alastair McBeath, has categorized 2007 as a "great year."
This meteor shower gets the name "Geminids" because it appears to radiate from the constellation Gemini. An observer in the Northern Hemisphere can start seeing Geminid meteors as early as December 6, when one meteor every hour or so could be visible. During the next week, rates increase until a peak of 50-80 meteors per hour is attained on the night of December 13/14. The last Geminids are seen on December 18, when an observer might see a rate of one every hour or so.
For observers in the Southern Hemisphere, the Geminid radiant never climbs far above the horizon, and this considerably reduces the number of Geminid meteors you are likely to see. Nevertheless, on the night of maximum, it is possible to see 20 meteors per hour coming up from the northern horizon.
There are other, weaker meteor showers going on around the same time as the Geminids, but the best way to know if the meteor you see is a Geminid is to mentally trace the meteor backwards. If you end up at Gemini then you have probably seen a Geminid meteor! If you are not sure where Gemini is in the sky, the following chart will help you find it from both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.
This represents the view from mid-northern latitudes at about 9:00 p.m. local time around
December 13. The graphic does not represent the view at the time of maximum, but is simply
meant to help prospective observers to find the radiant location. The red line across the bottom
of the image represents the horizon.
Top 10 tips for 2007 Geminid meteor shower
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316393,00.html
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.as … mp;id=6374
The Geminids are a meteor shower caused by an object named 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be an extinct comet. The meteors from this shower can be seen in mid-December and usually peak around 12-14 of the month. The Geminid shower is thought to be intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120-160 meteors per hour under optimal conditions. The Geminids were first observed only 150 years ago, much more recently than other showers such as the Perseids and Leonids.
The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the famous Perseids of August.
Studies of past find the "Gems" have a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful meteors and fireballs as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness.
They are of medium speed, encountering Earth at 22 miles per second (35 kps). They are bright and white, but unlike the Perseids, they leave few visible trails or streaks.
They are four times denser than most other meteors, and have been observed to form jagged or divided paths.
Geminids also stand apart from the other meteor showers in that they seem to have been spawned not by a comet, but by 3200 Phaethon, an Earth-crossing asteroid.
Then again, the Geminids may be comet debris after all, for some astronomers consider Phaethon to really be the dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow got trapped into an unusually tight orbit.
Interestingly, on Dec. 10, Phaethon will be passing about 11 million miles (18 million kilometers) from Earth, its closest approach since its discovery in 1983.
The Geminids perform excellently in any year, but British meteor astronomer, Alastair McBeath, has categorized 2007 as a "great year."
This meteor shower gets the name "Geminids" because it appears to radiate from the constellation Gemini. An observer in the Northern Hemisphere can start seeing Geminid meteors as early as December 6, when one meteor every hour or so could be visible. During the next week, rates increase until a peak of 50-80 meteors per hour is attained on the night of December 13/14. The last Geminids are seen on December 18, when an observer might see a rate of one every hour or so.
For observers in the Southern Hemisphere, the Geminid radiant never climbs far above the horizon, and this considerably reduces the number of Geminid meteors you are likely to see. Nevertheless, on the night of maximum, it is possible to see 20 meteors per hour coming up from the northern horizon.
There are other, weaker meteor showers going on around the same time as the Geminids, but the best way to know if the meteor you see is a Geminid is to mentally trace the meteor backwards. If you end up at Gemini then you have probably seen a Geminid meteor! If you are not sure where Gemini is in the sky, the following chart will help you find it from both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.
This represents the view from mid-northern latitudes at about 9:00 p.m. local time around
December 13. The graphic does not represent the view at the time of maximum, but is simply
meant to help prospective observers to find the radiant location. The red line across the bottom
of the image represents the horizon.
Top 10 tips for 2007 Geminid meteor shower
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316393,00.html
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.as … mp;id=6374
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