The Geminids meteor shower, famous for its multicoloured streaks of light across the night sky, is set to peak on Thursday evening.
Visible around the world, the meteors can be seen with the naked eye as long as the sky isn’t too cloudy or affected by light pollution. In perfect conditions, viewers can spot dozens of meteors every hour.
Nasa calls the Geminids one of the year’s “best and most reliable annual meteor showers”.
What exactly causes these showers?
We see meteors when the Earth passes through trails of debris from comets or asteroids. As that debris hits our planet’s atmosphere, it burns up and creates spectacular streaks of light. The Geminids are triggered by celestial debris left behind by a rocky asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon.
“Shooting stars actually have nothing to do with stars,” according to Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, space scientist and co-host of The Sky at Night. “It’s just these tiny bits of debris sort of burning up” she said.
Dr Aderin-Pocock said that because this meteor shower is caused by an asteroid and not a comet, it makes it “quite spectacular because asteroids are rocky” whereas comets are icy.
“Quite a few of these shooting stars will be coloured because of the difference in elements within the particles,” she said. The Royal Observatory in Greenwich says the colours include white, yellow, green, red and blue. The colours are partly caused by the presence of traces of metals like sodium and calcium in the debris. The name Geminids comes from Gemini, the constellation where these meteors appear to emerge from.
“This meteor shower is just a beautiful night sky event where many shooting stars seem to come from the same area in the sky,” said Dr Minjae Kim, an astronomy and astrophysics research fellow at the University of Warwick.
How can you see the shower?
Dr Aderin-Pocock explained that the best way to see meteors is to just look up at the sky, adding that while “you don’t actually have to look towards Gemini, you might see more if you do.”
“You won’t need any special equipment to view the shower and it might be easier to see them with just the naked eye. It’s also a good idea to go to as dark an open space as possible, as light pollution in cities can ruin the view.”
While the display has been visible for a few days already, the peak of the meteor shower in the UK is expected to start around 19:30 GMT on 14 December.
Dr Kim suggested downloading a stargazing app to help you know where to look. “If you can find the Gemini constellation first, it’s a piece of cake to see the meteor shower,” he says.
Other tips from Dr Kim include giving your eyes time to adjust to the dark, and taking a friend along – that way you can keep your eyes on different parts of the sky.
Don’t worry if you don’t manage to see the Geminids during their peak as the showers continue for a few days, though in lesser numbers.