One of the best meteor showers of the year reaches its peak this week, and if the conditions are clear, experts say about 120 shooting stars can be seen per hour for sky watchers.
The annual Geminids meteor shower has been active since late November, and the shooting stars will rise to their peak Wednesday night into early Thursday.
According to NASA, Gemini is one of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year. Under ideal conditions — clear air and no light pollution — astronomers can see more than one meteor per minute in the night sky.
This year, there will be at least enough moonlight to interfere with the colorful sky show, NASA said.
Geminis are known as bright, fast meteors that often appear yellow or white, although they can also be green, red, and even blue.
Most meteors appear colorless or white, however the Geminids appear greenish in color. They are beautiful meteors!” Bill Cook, director of the meteorite environment office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a blog post earlier this month.
Shooting stars can be seen anywhere in the world and are best seen at night and in the early hours before dawn. The meteors appear to stream from the constellation Gemini, which will rise in the northeastern sky.
According to NASA, it’s best to view the Geminids sitting or lying down with your feet facing south. The best vantage point is away from city lights and other forms of light pollution, in a spot that allows you to see as much of the sky as possible.
It is also best to allow your eyes to adjust to the dark for about 30 minutes. The meteors will be visible around 9 pm. or 10 p.m. local time, but sky watchers who go out even later — between midnight and 2 a.m. — may be treated to an even more impressive sky show. For people in the Northern Hemisphere, this will likely mean bundling up and preparing for cold winter conditions.
A meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through large clouds of debris left behind by comets or asteroids. As these particles hit the planet’s atmosphere, they vaporize and appear as fast-moving streaks of light across the sky.
Gemini comes from the remnants of an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, which takes 524 days to orbit the Sun. This small space rock, which is about 3.2 miles wide, was first discovered in 1983.
Although Gemini peaks this week, the meteor shower will remain active until Dec. 24, according to NASA.
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