Geminid meteor shower to peak tonight; defies explanation

Image by janet.powell via Flickr

While it may be quite snowy tonight, depending on where you live, you should still make it a point to get outside and glance up at the sky. The Geminid meteor shower, the most intense of the year, peaks tonight and tomorrow (Dec. 13 and 14). Not only is it a spectacular display, it’s also a mysterious one, too:

[The Geminid meteor shower] lasts for days, is rich in fireballs, and can be seen from almost any point on Earth.

It’s also NASA astronomer Bill Cooke’s favorite meteor shower–but not for any of the reasons listed above.

“The Geminids are my favorite,” he explains, “because they defy explanation.”

Most meteor showers come from comets, which spew ample meteoroids
for a night of ‘shooting stars.’ The Geminids are different. The parent
is not a comet but a weird rocky object named 3200 Phaethon that sheds
very little dusty debris–not nearly enough to explain the Geminids.

Read more here. And be sure to tune in to your local sky tonight!