The Geminid Meteor Shower.

The Geminid Meteor Shower is expected to peak at about 2.00 pm on Saturday 14 December this year (2019) with potentially up to 120 meteors per hour being visible in areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a clear sky. This year peak activity for the shower comes slightly after the Full Moon on Thursday 12 December, which may hamper viewing. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation of Gemini, hence their name.

The radiant point of the Gemenid Meteors (i.e. the point from which the meteors radiate). Gregg Dinderman/Sky & Telescope.

 

Oddly for a meteor shower, the Geminids do not appear to be related to a comet, but instead are associated with an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is classed as an Apollo Asteroid (an asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of the Earth). 3200 Phaethon has a highly elliptical orbit, which takes it in as close as 0.14 Au (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, more than twice as close as Mercury) and out as far as 2.4 AU (2.4 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 1.6 times as far as Mars). 3200 Phaethon does not appear to produce any sort of halo (a cloud of material produced by the evaporation of gas ice from the surface of a comet, thought to be the source of most meteor showers); rather it appears dark in colour an is classed as a B-type Carbonaceous Asteroid, thought to have a surface covering of  anhydrous silicates, hydrated clay minerals, organic polymers, magnetite, and sulphides.

Animation made from images of 3200 Phaeton captured on 17 December 2017, when it was at the closest point of its orbit to Earth, from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. National Science Foundation/NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is a 5 km body with a highly eccentric orbit similar to that of a comet, which takes it closer to the Sun than any other named Asteroid. It appears to be the parent body of the Geminid Meteors, which share essentially the same orbit as it, as well as a group of larger bodies known as the Phaethon-Geminid Complex. Such meteor showers typically form from the tail of a comet; as the comet approaches its perihelion (the closest point in its orbit to the Sun), ice at the surface sublimates away (turns directly from a solid to a gas - liquids do not form in a vacuum), releasing particles of silica trapped in the ice, which continue to follow essentially the same path as the comet, creating a meteor shower every time the Earth passes through this stream. However, 3200 Phaethon, which has a 1.43 year orbital period in which it reaches 0.14 AU from the Sun (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or less than half the distance at which Mercury orbits) is thought to regularly suffer surface temperatures in excess of 1000K, making it highly unlikely that it has ice on its surface, which calls its potential role as the parent body to the Geminid Meteors into question. 3200 Phaethon is classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). As an asteroid probably larger than 150 m in diameter that occasionally comes within 0.05 AU of the Earth, it is also classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.

 The orbit and current position of 3200 Phaethon. The Sky Live 3D Solar System Simulator.

In a paper published on the arXiv online database at Cornell University Library on 17 June 2013, David Jewitt of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles, Jing Li of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, and Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, describe the results of a study of 3200 Phaeton using the NASA STEREO Spacecraft.

Jewitt et al. observed two successive perihelions of 3200 Phaeton, in June 2009 and May 2012. On both occasions they were able to observe a faint comet-like dust tail emerging from the body, even though it was apparently reaching temperatures that would rapidly destroy an icy comet. This tail grew rapidly, reaching a length of over 250 000 km within a day of first appearing, and appeared to represent material being lost from the parent body at a rate of about 3 kg per second.

Composite images of 3200 Phaethon in 2009 (top row) and 2012 (bottom row) compared with the projected sun- comet line (white). The Sun is to the upper right in each panel. Insets are 49000 square and show eld stars near to Phaethon to demonstrate the point spread function of the data. Each panel has North to the top, East to the left and shows the median of 30 images taken over a 1 day period. Jewitt et al. (2013).

Jewitt et al. suggest that at it's perihelion 3200 Phaethon is being heated to such a degree that hydrated minerals at its surface could be thermally fractured and desiccated, leading to the ejection of dust particles.

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The Gemenid Meteor Shower.

The Geminid Meteor Shower is expected to peak at about 2.00 am on Friday 14 December this year (2018) with potentially up to 120 meteors per hour being visible in areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a clear sky. This year peak activity for the shower coincides with a waxing Crescent Moon, with the New Moon having fallen on Friday 7 December and the Quarter Moon on Saturday 15 December, so viewing should be fairly good. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation of Gemini, hence their name.

The radiant point of the Gemenid Meteors (i.e. the point from which the meteors radiate) at 10.00 pm on 13 December 2018. Astro Bob.

Oddly for a meteor shower, the Geminids do not appear to be related to a comet, but instead are associated with an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is classed as an Apollo Asteroid (an asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of the Earth). 3200 Phaethon has a highly elliptical orbit, which takes it in as close as 0.14 Au (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, more than twice as close as Mercury) and out as far as 2.4 AU (2.4 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 1.6 times as far as Mars). 3200 Phaethon does not appear to produce any sort of halo (a cloud of material produced by the evaporation of gas ice from the surface of a comet, thought to be the source of most meteor showers); rather it appears dark in colour an is classed as a B-type Carbonaceous Asteroid, thought to have a surface covering of  anhydrous silicates, hydrated clay minerals, organic polymers, magnetite, and sulphides.

Image of 3200 Phaeton taken on 13 December 2017, four days before the asteroid made its closest approach to the Earth this century, reaching about 3 100 000 km from us. The photograph is a two minute exposure, leading the asteroid, which was moving to appear as a line in the image. Two Gemenid Meteors crossed the field of vision during this time, forming longer, fainter lines. Mikiya Sato/Nippon Meteor Society/Astronomy Picture of the Day/NASA. 
 

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is a 5 km body with a highly eccentric orbit similar to that of a comet, which takes it closer to the Sun than any other named Asteroid. It appears to be the parent body of the Geminid Meteors, which share essentially the same orbit as it, as well as a group of larger bodies known as the Phaethon-Geminid Complex. Such meteor showers typically form from the tail of a comet; as the comet approaches its perihelion (the closest point in its orbit to the Sun), ice at the surface sublimates away (turns directly from a solid to a gas - liquids do not form in a vacuum), releasing particles of silica trapped in the ice, which continue to follow essentially the same path as the comet, creating a meteor shower every time the Earth passes through this stream. However, 3200 Phaethon, which has a 1.43 year orbital period in which it reaches 0.14 AU from the Sun (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or less than half the distance at which Mercury orbits) is thought to regularly suffer surface temperatures in excess of 1000K, making it highly unlikely that it has ice on its surface, which calls its potential role as the parent body to the Geminid Meteors into question. 3200 Phaethon is classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). As an asteroid probably larger than 150 m in diameter that occasionally comes within 0.05 AU of the Earth, it is also classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.

 The orbit and current position of 3200 Phaethon. The Sky Live 3D Solar System Simulator.

In a paper published on the arXiv online database at Cornell University Library on 17 June 2013, David Jewitt of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles, Jing Li of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, and Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, describe the results of a study of 3200 Phaeton using the NASA STEREO Spacecraft.

Jewitt et al. observed two successive perihelions of 3200 Phaeton, in June 2009 and May 2012. On both occasions they were able to observe a faint comet-like dust tail emerging from the body, even though it was apparently reaching temperatures that would rapidly destroy an icy comet. This tail grew rapidly, reaching a length of over 250 000 km within a day of first appearing, and appeared to represent material being lost from the parent body at a rate of about 3 kg per second.

Composite images of 3200 Phaethon in 2009 (top row) and 2012 (bottom row) compared with the projected sun- comet line (white). The Sun is to the upper right in each panel. Insets are 49000 square and show eld stars near to Phaethon to demonstrate the point spread function of the data. Each panel has North to the top, East to the left and shows the median of 30 images taken over a 1 day period. Jewitt et al. (2013).

Jewitt et al. suggest that at it's perihelion 3200 Phaethon is being heated to such a degree that hydrated minerals at its surface could be thermally fractured and desiccated, leading to the ejection of dust particles.

See also...

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The Gemenid Meteors.

The Geminid Meteor Shower is expected to peak on Wednesday 13 December this year (2017) with potentially up to 120 meteors per hour being visible in areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a clear sky. This year peak activity for the shower coincides with a waning Crescent Moon, with the New Moon falling on Sunday 17 December, so viewing should be fairly good. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation of Gemini, hence their name.

The relative positions of the radiant point of the Gemenid Meteors (i.e. the point from which the meteors radiate) at 9.00 pm on 13 December 2017. Sky & Telescope.

Oddly for a meteor shower, the Geminids do not appear to be related to a comet, but instead are associated with an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is classed as an Apollo Asteroid (an asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of the Earth). 3200 Phaethon has a highly elliptical orbit, which takes it in as close as 0.14 Au (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, more than twice as close as Mercury) and out as far as 2.4 AU (2.4 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 1.6 times as far as Mars). 3200 Phaethon does not appear to produce any sort of halo (a cloud of material produced by the evaporation of gas ice from the surface of a comet, thought to be the source of most meteor showers); rather it appears dark in colour an is classed as a B-type Carbonaceous Asteroid, thought to have a surface covering of  anhydrous silicates, hydrated clay minerals, organic polymers, magnetite, and sulphides.

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is a 5 km body with a highly eccentric orbit similar to that of a comet, which takes it closer to the Sun than any other named Asteroid. It appears to be the parent body of the Geminid Meteors, which share essentially the same orbit as it, as well as a group of larger bodies known as the Phaethon-Geminid Complex. Such meteor showers typically form from the tail of a comet; as the comet approaches its perihelion (the closest point in its orbit to the Sun), ice at the surface sublimates away (turns directly from a solid to a gas - liquids do not form in a vacuum), releasing particles of silica trapped in the ice, which continue to follow essentially the same path as the comet, creating a meteor shower every time the Earth passes through this stream. However, 3200 Phaethon, which has a 1.43 year orbital period in which it reaches 0.14 AU from the Sun (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or less than half the distance at which Mercury orbits) is thought to regularly suffer surface temperatures in excess of 1000K, making it highly unlikely that it has ice on its surface, which calls its potential role as the parent body to the Geminid Meteors into question.

Image of 3200 Phaethon taken on 20 November 2017 with the Pearl Telescope at the Tenagra Observatory in Arizona The asteroid is the point in the centre of the picture, indicated by the two red lines. The longer lines are stars, their elongation being caused by the telescope tracking the asteroid over the length of the exposure, in this case five exposures, each of 180 seconds. Gianluca Masi/Virtual Telescope/Michael Schwartz/Tenagra Observatory.

 

In a paper published on the arXiv online database at Cornell University Library on 17 June 2013, David Jewitt of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles, Jing Li of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, and Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, describe the results of a study of 3200 Phaeton using the NASA STEREO Spacecraft.

Jewitt et al. observed two successive perihelions of 3200 Phaeton, in June 2009 and May 2012. On both occasions they were able to observe a faint comet-like dust tail emerging from the body, even though it was apparently reaching temperatures that would rapidly destroy an icy comet. This tail grew rapidly, reaching a length of over 250 000 km within a day of first appearing, and appeared to represent material being lost from the parent body at a rate of about 3 kg per second.

Composite images of 3200 Phaethon in 2009 (top row) and 2012 (bottom row) compared with the projected sun- comet line (white). The Sun is to the upper right in each panel. Insets are 49000 square and show eld stars near to Phaethon to demonstrate the point spread function of the data. Each panel has North to the top, East to the left and shows the median of 30 images taken over a 1 day period. Jewitt et al. (2013).

Jewitt et al. suggest that at it's perihelion 3200 Phaethon is being heated to such a degree that hydrated minerals at its surface could be thermally fractured and desiccated, leading to the ejection of dust particles.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

The Gemenid Meteors.

The Geminid Meteor Shower is expected to peak on Sunday 13-Monday 14 December this year (2016) with potentially up to 120 meteors per hour being visible in areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a clear sky. However this coincides with the Full Moon, which falls on the 14th, so the shower may be somewhat obscured. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation of Gemini, hence their name.

The relative positions of the radiant point of the Gemenid Meteors (i.e. the point from which the meteors radiate), the Moon and the constellations Gemini and Orion on 14 December 2016. Space.com.

Oddly for a meteor shower, the Geminids do not appear to be related to a comet, but instead are associated with an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is classed as an Apollo Asteroid (an asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of the Earth). 3200 Phaethon has a highly elliptical orbit, which takes it in as close as 0.14 Au (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, more than twice as close as Mercury) and out as far as 2.4 AU (2.4 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 1.6 times as far as Mars). 3200 Phaethon does not appear to produce any sort of halo (a cloud of material produced by the evaporation of gas ice from the surface of a comet, thought to be the source of most meteor showers); rather it appears dark in colour an is classed as a B-type Carbonaceous Asteroid, thought to have a surface covering of  anhydrous silicates, hydrated clay minerals, organic polymers, magnetite, and sulphides.

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is a 5 km body with a highly eccentric orbit similar to that of a comet, which takes it closer to the Sun than any other named Asteroid. It appears to be the parent body of the Geminid Meteors, which share essentially the same orbit as it, as well as a group of larger bodies known as the Phaethon-Geminid Complex. Such meteor showers typically form from the tail of a comet; as the comet approaches its perihelion (the closest point in its orbit to the Sun), ice at the surface sublimates away (turns directly from a solid to a gas - liquids do not form in a vacuum), releasing particles of silica trapped in the ice, which continue to follow essentially the same path as the comet, creating a meteor shower every time the Earth passes through this stream. However, 3200 Phaethon, which has a 1.43 year orbital period in which it reaches 0.14 AU from the Sun (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or less than half the distance at which Mercury orbits) is thought to regularly suffer surface temperatures in excess of 1000K, making it highly unlikely that it has ice on its surface, which calls its potential role as the parent body to the Geminid Meteors into question.

In a paper published on the arXiv online database at Cornell University Library on 17 June 2013, David Jewitt of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles, Jing Li of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, and Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, describe the results of a study of 3200 Phaeton using the NASA STEREO Spacecraft.

Jewitt et al. observed two successive perihelions of 3200 Phaeton, in June 2009 and May 2012. On both occasions they were able to observe a faint comet-like dust tail emerging from the body, even though it was apparently reaching temperatures that would rapidly destroy an icy comet. This tail grew rapidly, reaching a length of over 250 000 km within a day of first appearing, and appeared to represent material being lost from the parent body at a rate of about 3 kg per second.

 Composite images of 3200 Phaethon in 2009 (top row) and 2012 (bottom row) compared with the projected sun- comet line (white). The Sun is to the upper right in each panel. Insets are 49000 square and show eld stars near to Phaethon to demonstrate the point spread function of the data. Each panel has North to the top, East to the left and shows the median of 30 images taken over a 1 day period. Jewitt et al. (2013).

Jewitt et al. suggest that at it's perihelion 3200 Phaethon is being heated to such a degree that hydrated minerals at its surface could be thermally fractured and desiccated, leading to the ejection of dust particles.

See also...

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Geminid Meteor Shower should be clearly visible this year.

The Geminid Meteor Shower is expected to peak on Sunday 13-Monday 14 December this year (2015) with potentially up to 120 meteors per hour being visible in areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a clear sky. This comes immediately after the New Moon on 12 December, so only a thin crescent moon will be present in the sky, so that the meteors should be clearly visible. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation of Gemini, hence their name.

 The radiant point (apparent point of origin) of the Geminid Meteors in 2015. Astro Bob.

Oddly for a meteor shower, the Geminids do not appear to be related to a comet, but instead are associated with an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is classed as an Apollo Asteroid (an asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of the Earth). 3200 Phaethon has a highly elliptical orbit, which takes it in as close as 0.14 Au (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, more than twice as close as Mercury) and out as far as 2.4 AU (2.4 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 1.6 times as far as Mars). 3200 Phaethon does not appear to produce any sort of halo (a cloud of material produced by the evaporation of gas ice from the surface of a comet, thought to be the source of most meteor showers); rather it appears dark in colour an is classed as a B-type Carbonaceous Asteroid, thought to have a surface covering of  anhydrous silicates, hydrated clay minerals, organic polymers, magnetite, and sulphides.

The orbit and current position of 3200 Phaethon. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is a 5 km body with a highly eccentric orbit similar to that of a comet, which takes it closer to the Sun than any other named Asteroid. It appears to be the parent body of the Geminid Meteors, which share essentially the same orbit as it, as well as a group of larger bodies known as the Phaethon-Geminid Complex. Such meteor showers typically form from the tail of a comet; as the comet approaches its perihelion (the closest point in its orbit to the Sun), ice at the surface sublimates away (turns directly from a solid to a gas - liquids do not form in a vacuum), releasing particles of silica trapped in the ice, which continue to follow essentially the same path as the comet, creating a meteor shower every time the Earth passes through this stream. However, 3200 Phaethon, which has a 1.43 year orbital period in which it reaches 0.14 AU from the Sun (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or less than half the distance at which Mercury orbits) is thought to regularly suffer surface temperatures in excess of 1000K, making it highly unlikely that it has ice on its surface, which calls its potential role as the parent body to the Geminid Meteors into question.

In a paper published on the arXiv online database at Cornell University Library on 17 June 2013, David Jewitt of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California Los Angeles, Jing Li of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles, and Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, describe the results of a study of 3200 Phaeton using the NASA STEREO Spacecraft.

Jewitt et al. observed two successive perihelions of 3200 Phaeton, in June 2009 and May 2012. On both occasions they were able to observe a faint comet-like dust tail emerging from the body, even though it was apparently reaching temperatures that would rapidly destroy an icy comet. This tail grew rapidly, reaching a length of over 250 000 km within a day of first appearing, and appeared to represent material being lost from the parent body at a rate of about 3 kg per second.

 

Composite images of 3200 Phaethon in 2009 (top row) and 2012 (bottom row) compared with the projected sun- comet line (white). The Sun is to the upper right in each panel. Insets are 49000 square and show eld stars near to Phaethon to demonstrate the point spread function of the data. Each panel has North to the top, East to the left and shows the median of 30 images taken over a 1 day period. Jewitt et al. (2013).

Jewitt et al. suggest that at it's perihelion 3200 Phaethon is being heated to such a degree that hydrated minerals at its surface could be thermally fractured and desiccated, leading to the ejection of dust particles.

 

See also...

 

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The Geminid Meteors.

The Geminid Meteor Shower is expected to peak on 13-14 December this year (2013) with potentially up to 120 meteors per hour being visible in areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a clear sky, although with the shower occurring only a few days before the full Moon on 17 December, it is unlikely that many people will have a good view this year. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the constellation of Gemini, hence their name.

The point of origin of the Geminid Meteors. StarDate.

Oddly for a meteor shower, the Geminids do not appear to be related to a comet, but instead are associated with an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is classed as an Apollo Asteroid (an asteroid with an orbit that crosses that of the Earth). 3200 Phaeton has a highly elliptical orbit, which takes it in as close as 0.14 Au (14% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, more than twice as close as Mercury) and out as far as 2.4 AU (2.4 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or 1.6 times as far as Mars). 3200 Phaethon does not appear to produce any sort of halo (a cloud of material produced by the evaporation of gas ice from the surface of a comet, thought to be the source of most meteor showers); rather it appears dark in colour an is classed as a B-type Carbonaceous Asteroid, thought to have a surface covering of  anhydrous silicates, hydrated clay minerals, organic polymers, magnetite, and sulphides.

The orbit of 3200 Phaethon. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

See also The origin of the Chelyabinsk Meteor, The Oroinid Meteors, The dust tail of 3200 Phaethon, The Perseid Meteors and The Arietid Meteors.

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