The peak of the Geminid meteor shower falls on the night of December 13-14, and it will be possible to see it in Ukraine, UNN reports citing Space.
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This year, the peak of the Geminid meteor shower will coincide with about 90% illumination of the waxing moon, and the full moon will be in just a few days, on December 15. According to the American Meteor Society, if there is no moonlight that can interfere, you can see up to 150 meteorites per hour in the sky during rush hour.
Unlike most meteor showers we see on Earth, Geminids are the product of an asteroid, not a comet. The steady stream generates bright meteors associated with the asteroid Phaethon, a blue rock that looks like a comet.
Geminids are considered one of the best meteor showers every year because individual meteors are bright and arrive quickly.
It is known that the Geminid meteor shower is almost 200 years old. It was first seen in 1833 from a riverboat on the Mississippi River. Over time, this rain actually becomes stronger. According to a statement from NASA astronomer Bill Cook during the NASA Chat, This is because Jupiter's gravity has attracted a stream of particles from the stream's source, asteroid 3200 Phaethon, closer to Earth for centuries.
Gemindi meteors are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, but they are also visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
The Geminid meteor shower is named after the constellation from which the meteors themselves emerge.
From Earth's point of view, the Geminid meteor shower originates roughly in the direction of the constellation Gemini. The constellation Gemini is quite noticeable in the night sky, because of them it is located northeast of the constellation Orion, it is between the constellations of Taurus and cancer.
But in order to see the Geminid meteor shower, it is not necessary to look for the constellation Gemini in the night sky, since shooting stars will be visible in the night sky.
The Geminids are linked to the Near-Earth object 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid that may have collided with another object in the distant past, forming a stream of particles. This asteroid behaves like a comet and orbits the sun every 1.4 years. As the Earth passes through the debris left by 3,200 Phaethons, the "asteroid crumbs" heat up, entering the Earth's atmosphere , and burn up with bright flashes of light.
recall
The James Webb Space Telescope overcame the obstacles of cosmic dust and found new galaxies in the spiderweb protocluster. The object is located at a distance of 10 billion light-years from Earth.