The source of the Geminid meteor shower is the 3200 Phaethon, which is unusual because comets usually create meteor showers with icy debris. The Phaethon was first discovered in October 1983 and named after the Greek myth about the son of Helios, the sun god, because it closely approached the sun. The meteor shower happens when Earth passes through a massive trail of dusty debris shed by the Phaethon.
What is Asteroid 3200 Phaethon?
The 3200 Phaethon is referred to as a rock comet as it shares characteristic with both asteroids and comets.
The Geminids were first reported in 1862 and have been recognised as an annual phenomenon since then.
But the source of the shower was unknown until 1983 when Phaethon was discovered.
Phaethon measures about three-miles across and loops around the Sun every 1.4 years in an orbit that approaches the glowing orb closer than any other known asteroid.
The asteroid gets as hot as 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit as it nears the sun, which causes it to shed dusty debris.
The debris is about the size of sand grains or peas each time it passes the sun and the particles cause the meteor shower when they plunge into the Earth’s atmosphere at 22 miles per second, seen in early to mid December.
3200 Phaethon behaves more like a comet than an asteroid as it forms a tail - and some scientists speculate it’s more like an extinct comet than an asteroid.
Phaethon releases a tiny dust tail when it gets closest to the sun and the kind of activity has only been seen on two objects in the entire solar system, Phaethon and one other, similar object.
They appear to blue the line traditionally thought to set comets and asteroids apart.
During the last Gemini meteor shower in 2017, the 3200 Phaethon was incredibly close to the Sun, it was swept to within 6.4 million miles.
However this year, Phaethon is much further away, it is currently 346.9 million miles from the Sun and 228.7 million miles from Earth.
The Earth is far the orbit of 3200 Phaethon during the first three weeks of December and comes closest to the core of the orbit on December 14 each year.
When is the Geminid meteor shower?
The Geminid meteor shower will peak from December 13 to 14 and is best viewed in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Geminids is one of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year.
The best time to view the shower is at 2am when meteor rates can reach up to 100 per hour but could be more like about 30 to 40 per hour depending on the lighting conditions.
The Geminids appear to radiate out of the constellation Gemini but the meteors can be seen in any part of the sky.
No matter what part of the sky they appear in, they will all trace back to the radiant near the bright star known as Castor.
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