The Perseids are undoubtedly the most famous of all meteor showers, but the Geminid shower, which peaks this week, is “one of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year.” It is believed that there is. NASA.
Unfortunately for Western Washington, the National Weather Service expects clouds and light rain to cover the skies as the Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak.
However, the show continues until Dec. 24, so even if you don’t manage to spot the Geminids on Wednesday or Thursday night, when the show peaks, you’ll still be able to see the “shooting stars” throughout the next week. According to the Washington Post.
Beyond the Clouds, the show starts for those of us in Seattle on Wednesday at 8pm. It will then peak around 2 a.m. Thursday, when its radiant, or source region, will be highest in the sky, producing about 120 meteors per hour, according to NASA.
Tuesday’s new moon and subsequent young waxing moon will only be 3% brighter by Thursday, allowing even the faintest of meteor showers to shine for those lucky enough to be under clear skies.
Most meteor showers result from debris shed by comets, but an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon is responsible for the gem of the Geminid meteor shower.
Meteor fragments are stone-sized pieces of dust that hit the top of Earth’s atmosphere at 80 miles above the Earth, burning brightly and leaving no trace as Earth passes through rivers of debris. . According to NASA, they appear yellow.
3200 Phaethon is closer to the Sun than any other asteroid, traveling about half the distance of Mercury, the innermost planet. The 3.2-mile-wide asteroid may have broken off from a comet, forming a comet-like tail as it approaches the sun, NASA said. The meteor travels at 31 miles per second.