2015 Geminids Peak Monday, Dec. 14, With After-Peak High Dec. 15

Summary: The 2015 Geminids peak Monday, Dec. 14, with an after-peak high Tuesday, Dec. 15.

Geminids Meteor Shower in northern hemisphere, Dec. 14, 2013: Asim Patel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2015 Geminids peak from evening through early morning hours Monday, Dec. 14. The shower continues with an after-peak high from evening through early morning Tuesday, Dec. 15.

The moon will not distract from viewing of the 2015 Geminids. On the North American east coast, moon rise takes place after dawn and moonset occurs well before 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (15:00 Coordinated Universal Time). Also December 14’s moon appears as a waxing crescent, with the lunar sliver only displaying 11 percent visibility.

Typical of most meteor showers, the Geminids receive their name from their radiant, the apparent point in the sky from which the shower appears to radiate. Geminid meteors appear to trace back to the constellation of Gemini the Twins. Gemini’s two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, are easy identifiers for the constellation.

Meteor showers have parent bodies which generally are comets. The Geminids, however, claim an asteroid, 3200 Phaethon, as their parent body. The Geminids’ asteroid parent closely hugs the Sun, completing its solar orbit every 1.4 years. The linking of the Geminid meteor stream to the Sun’s closest named asteroid on October 25, 1983, by Harvard College Observatory astronomer Fred Lawrence “F.L.” Whipple served as the first definite example of non-comet parenting of a meteor shower.

Another first concerning 3200 Phaethon is its status as the first asteroid discovered by images from a spacecraft.  The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) identified 3200 Phaethon during its 10-month mission, from Jan. 25 to Nov. 21, 1983, as the first-ever, infrared wavelength survey of the entire sky by a space-based observatory.

The Geminids are a recently discovered meteor shower. Their appearance was first noted in 1862 through independent observations in England and, across the Atlantic, in the United States.

Viewable in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the Geminid meteor shower appears every year around Dec. 6 and lasts until Dec. 18. Geminids favor the Northern Hemisphere, where they are viewable generally from mid-evening, beginning at around 9:00 to 10:00 p.m., through the early morning hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, Geminids are less visible because their radiant does not climb high above the horizon. Geminids appear to originate in the eastern skies in the Northern Hemisphere and in the lower northeastern skies in the Southern Hemisphere.

Despite their apparent radiant, the Geminids do not limit their shows to Gemini’s segment of the sky. As with all meteor showers, the Geminids may be seen shooting across the entire nighttime skies.

The Geminids first appeared as a weak meteor shower, with peaks at only 10 to 20 meteors per hour. They have increased their showings, with peaks reaching up to 120 meteors per hour, to become one of the year’s major meteor showers. Their velocity of 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second) and their noticeable yellowness make them easily spottable.

The 2015 Geminids are expected to live up to the shower’s reputation as an enjoyable close to the year’s meteor shower shows.

Baikonut Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan; Dec. 13, 2015, photo by NASA/Joel Kowsky: NASA @NASA via Twitter Dec. 14, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Northern Hemisphere's Geminid meteor shower: Asim Patel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geminids.jpg

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan; Dec. 13, 2015, photo by NASA/Joel Kowsky: NASA‏ @NASA via Twitter Dec. 14, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/NASA/status/676449344682401793

For further information:

Kronk, Gary. "Observing the Geminids." Meteor Showers Online.
Available @ http://meteorshowersonline.com/geminids.html

“Meteors and Meteorites: Geminids.” NASA Solar System Exploration > Planets.
Available via NASA Solar System Exploration @ http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/geminids.cfm

Loff, Sarah. "Expedition 46 Soyuz Rollout." NASA > Image Features > Expedition 46. Dec. 14, 2015.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/expedition-46-soyuz-rollout

NASA‏ @NASA. "A Geminid meteor streaks the skies of Tuesday's launch site of three crew to @Space_Station." Twitter. Dec. 14, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NASA/status/676449344682401793