Geminid Meteor Shower Defies Explanation

Dec. 6, 2010: The Geminid meteor shower, which peaks this year on Dec. 13th and 14th, is the most intense meteor shower of the year. It lasts for days, is rich in fireballs, and can be seen from almost any point on Earth.
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.

I love Meteor showers and can't wait for this one. Says can produce up to 120 meteors an hour, best time to look is between midnight and sunrise on Tuesday December 14. We've still have so much to learn about the universe.





Source

reply to post by BrokenCar


I love Meteor Showers too and definitely will be watching this one.

thank you for sharing this.

Thanks for posting, I am marking the Calendar.

But, I am the Charlie Brown of meteor watchers, always cloudy on the nights in question, but maybe this year, I'll kick that football.

reply to post by BrokenCar


im in the uk and we have had clear frost skies....do i need a telescope to view this shower or will naked eye veiwing be ample?

ohhh nice...i hope we have a clear sky



thx for the info

I love seeing meteor showers too.

Clear skies and real frosty nights (around -14 at times) should guarantee a good viewing here in the UK.

Does anyone know if this shower will look different to the 'comet-induced' showers? Or will it look the same?

S&F

Wey Hey finally. Someone posted it I've dropped enough hints.
Yet still those that have posted obviously haven't even read the link.
science.nasa.gov...
Not one reply regarding 3200 Phaethon or Pallas. Asteroids or possible nemesis we also have a thread or 3 asking about the object passing the sun.
The answer may be in the link.

I saw a nice green fireball this morning while walking the dog. Just close enough to be able to see the flames or debris or whatever it is kind of trailing off of it.

Very cool.

Not the best fireball I've seen, but I'll give it second best.

Should be visible without optical aid.

Yeah the Leonid meteor shower was blocked by clouds for me. Hopefully not this time.

I've read the link and to be honest it might as well be in chinese for what I understood of it - I'm not very well-read on space stuff and/or terminology

I've just finished work too and my pea-brain is too tired to absorb the science of it.

I'm looking forward to seeing the shower though

double post

How about this for an origin:

The feast of Saturnalia began “always on the 17th of December” and with time, in imperial Rome, when it was celebrated for three consecutive days, it began on the fifteenth and continued for two more days, until the seventeenth.(4)

Not exactly but if something bad happened 14th and 15th that was all over by the 17th there
might be a festival.

from Seventeen

ED: Perhaps its a chunk of SATURN

Originally posted by NWOnoworldorder
reply to post by BrokenCar

 

im in the uk and we have had clear frost skies....do i need a telescope to view this shower or will naked eye veiwing be ample?

No - No telescope required, but you should try to get away from all forms of light pollution, and it might be a good idea to wrap yourself up and jump into a sleeping bag (or 2!), or you may not be comfortable.

Check out my posting history and you will find lots of meteor shower observing tips

Originally posted by doobydoll

Does anyone know if this shower will look different to the 'comet-induced' showers? Or will it look the same?

Each shower has its own characteristics to some degree, but compared to the better known cometary showers like Perseids and Leonids, the meteors are pretty much instantly recognizable. They are significantly slower (35km/s vs 71 km/s and 61 km/s for Leonids and Perseids respectively) and this in turn influences the color, which is usually white or off-white/yellow. They also don't leave so many persistent trains as faster meteors.

The Geminids is still a spectacular shower to observe at peak, and there are usually at least a few bright fireball class meteors over the course of a peak night. The rates alone make it worthwhile to watch anyway IMO. Last year I netted over 500 Geminid meteors in one night, despite a fair chunk of that time having been spent messing around with cameras.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


Or its 3200 Phaeton or Pallas?
The chunk fro the other also you might want to remind yourselfes which planet on our solar syatem seems to have had a bump!?
science.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by jazz10
reply to post by TeslaandLyne

 

Or its 3200 Phaeton or Pallas?
The chunk fro the other also you might want to remind yourselfes which planet on our solar syatem seems to have had a bump!?
science.nasa.gov...

Giving us the first known sightings would have been nice but perhaps the beginning
of recent records is understood as -600 BC and all data past the date has a different
calendar. The age of Saturn at the Food being fixed in December seems odd unless
man devised a way to keep up the traditions in spite of the many calamities of the
ancients.

Originally posted by C.H.U.D.

Originally posted by NWOnoworldorder
reply to post by BrokenCar

 

im in the uk and we have had clear frost skies....do i need a telescope to view this shower or will naked eye veiwing be ample?

No - No telescope required, but you should try to get away from all forms of light pollution, and it might be a good idea to wrap yourself up and jump into a sleeping bag (or 2!), or you may not be comfortable.

Definitely NO telescope. You want to be laying on your back, with as much of the sky as possible within your field of view. Combining this with the advice from C.H.U.D., drive out into the dark countryside, away from a main road (and those pesky headlights), park, and then lie back on the warm hood (the bonnet, to Her Majesty's subjects). I did this with my girlfriend several years back, for the Leonids. We're married now.

Oh, one more thing: The best time for viewing is between midnight and dawn. That's when the Earth has rotated around so that the side you're on is on the leading-side as the planet moves in its orbit and plows through the asteroid stream - sort of like when a car is driving though a rainstorm, and most of the drops hit the front windshield, and almost none hit the back.

For those that are interested in locating constellations, stars and planets, there is a free software download of a program called Starcalc. I have checked it out, via spyware detectors, google advisories and other sources, and it seems to be free of any malware.
If you are interested, here is the link to download it.
starcalc.findmysoft.com...#


It will download compressed files, which you can unzip, then run the install process, then run the program. There is a readme text file, and a file called starcalc which will execute the program. It takes a little time to get used to, but it has tremendous functions. You can display names of constellations, planets, deep space objects, etc.

I'm putting this post up, because most of the links specified in the OP link article, are no longer valid.

For those of you who are interested, a "live" Activity profile graph for this years Geminid meteor shower can be found here. The rate is starting to build up now, and up to 15 Geminids every hour could be visible to an observer observing under ideal conditions.

Good luck to everyone, and clear skies!

Thanks OP! Will be keeping an eye on this!
I've seen approximately 8 'shooting stars' the last 2 days, maybe they're part of this!

I've been waiting for this all year and can't wait to see it. It's getting pretty chilly where I live in Florida and it's supposed to be complete clear skies late tonight and for the next 2 or 3 days. So hopefully I get some nice views. Also can't wait for the total lunar eclipse on the 20th.