What are Geminids Meteor Shower?

December 15, 2020

The Geminids Meteor Showers are to be the strongest between December 4 and December 20. Soon after the Geminids Meteor Shower, the Ursid Meteor showers are to occur between December 17 and December 26. The Geminids are expected at about 60 meteors per hour and the Ursids at five to ten per hour.

Meteor Showers

The meteors are pieces of rocks and ice that are ejected from comets as they orbit around the sun. The Orionid meteors occur from comet Halley. When a meteor reaches the earth, it is called meteorite. When a series of meteorites are encountered at once, it is called meteor shower.

As the meteors come in close contact to the earth, they are acted upon by its gravity. They thus enter the earth’s atmosphere. The resistance offered by the atmosphere makes the rocks extremely hot. They eventually catch fore and leave behind streaks of glowing gas that are visible as meteor showers.

According to NASA, over 30 meteor showers occur annually. The other meteor showers that occurred in November are Leonids, Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids. When the number of meteors spotted are thousand per hour, it is called meteor storm. When the number of meteors spotted are less than thousand per hour, it is called meteor shower.

About Geminid Meteor Showers

The Geminid Meteor Showers are unique as they do not originate from a comet but from an asteroid. The Geminid Meteor originate from Phaethon asteroid. The asteroid was discovered in 1983. Phaethon is the son of Sun god Helios in Greek Mythology. The asteroid is five kilometres in diameter.