Expect the most brilliant meteor shower of the year

The night sky in December will welcome the most glorious meteor shower in 2010, with the only eclipse of the year, promising to be more attractive than the fireworks display for the New Year.

Meteor shower occurs when the earth sweeps through comets' debris. (Photo: internet).

Night 14, dawn on December 15, anywhere in the world, everyone can admire the Geminids meteor shower (Gemini meteor shower), one of the magnificent meteor shower most this year.

What is attractive is that the number of meteor stars during the peak of this stellar rain is predicted to be up to 120 streaks / hour. In Vietnam, about 23 hours on December 14, people turn their eyes towards the constellation Gemini will see the meteor appear more and more until it reaches its peak at about 2 am on December 15. This magnificent rain will end after 5 hours.

The meteor shower appears to be caused by the fact that the earth enters the dusty area which is the remnant of comets. Different sized dust particles rush into the atmosphere at very high speeds, creating shock waves. The shockwave compresses the air particles in front of it, causing temperatures to reach thousands of degrees Celsius and igniting, creating light trails at a height of 60-100 km. These fascinating light trails are meteor.

Earlier in the morning of August 13, the meteor shower Tien Tien with the focus of constellation Anh Tien (Perseus) also attracted many astronomers admire. The number of meteor stars during this maximum time is up to nearly 100 tracks per hour. The time when the maximum is right on the first day of the lunar month, the observation of the people watching the meteor shower was fortunate not to be affected by the moonlight.

In Vietnam, there are 5 notable heavy rains in the year: meteor shower Quadrantids (early January), Perseids (mid-August), Orionids (Late October), Leonids (Mid-November) and meteor shower coming on this 15th, Geminids (mid-December).