The Geminids, with peak visibility of up to 120 meteorites per hour, is one of the most spectacular annual meteor showers and this year’s jawdropping shower left the stargazers surprised at the sight that continued all night long on Sunday, the 13th of December, till Monday dawn.
Meteor showers are usually predictable, which include numerous meteors and are often linked to comets (Comets are cosmic, dust, snowballs of frozen gases, and rock that revolve around the Sun). And when the astronomical debris periodically nears the Earth’s atmosphere on any night, these meteors are likely to occur.
The rock comet is the parent body of the shower known as 3200 Phaethon.
Have you ever happened to see a long tail star?
Well, these are comets as they near the enormous planet called Sun, the icy surface of the stream of the comet away from the comet and vaporize the snow making it look like a star with a tail. They tend to move quite fast.
And when they orbit the sun the gases get dust and other small particles and carry them along. Over time, this substance extends through the whole orbital path of the comet.
According to earthsky.org, you can catch the amazing sight of 50 plus meteors per hour on a dark night. Yet on Geminids shower night, it doubles the meteors allowing you to see 150 meteors per hour which were seen this year in 2020.
The stargazing lovers stayed up all night to relish the scenery through live streaming on the CosmoSapiens youtube channel.
In case you missed the astounding show on the sky last night, here is the video for you to enjoy.
