Starwatch: The year's final meteor shower

 The Geminids are one of the most consistent and active meteor showers, averaging roughly 120 meteors per hour.

The year's final significant meteor shower is about to begin. When viewed from a dark location, the Geminid meteor shower—one of the most frequent and consistent—regularly produces about 120 meteors per hour.

Additionally, they peak on the evening of December 14 even though they are visible from December 4 through December 20.

Another noteworthy thing about the Geminids is that they don't come from comets. Rather, they have been linked to the peculiarly active asteroid Phaethon. Because of this, the dust particles produce are denser than those of most meteors and they tend to fragment explosively into smaller pieces when they burn up in the atmosphere.

Fortunately, Geminid meteor showers move more slowly than other meteor showers, which makes them easier to identify because they stay in the sky for longer.

Additionally, they peak on the evening of December 14 even though they are visible from December 4 through December 20.

Another noteworthy thing about the Geminids is that they don't come from comets. Rather, they have been linked to the peculiarly active asteroid Phaethon. Because of this, the dust particles produce are denser than those of most meteors and they tend to fragment explosively into smaller pieces when they burn up in the atmosphere.

Fortunately, Geminid meteor showers move more slowly than other meteor showers, which makes them easier to identify because they stay in the sky for longer.

The view looking east from London at 2100 GMT on December 14th is depicted in the chart. The Geminids are prominent from the northern hemisphere because they are frequently active before midnight, making them visible to even the uninitiated observer.

The radiant, which is the location in the sky from which meteors appear to originate and then radiate outward in all directions, rises at midnight but never very high into the sky from the southern hemisphere. This drastically reduces the quantity of meteors that are visible.