Giant meteors are about to fly across Earth

The astronomical community at the Federal University of Immanuel Kant Baltic, Russia uses the Astro-Model emulator to build a 3200 Phaethon meteorite approaching Earth.

On December 17, 2017, meteorite named 3200 Phaethon will approach the Earth. This is a relatively large meteorite with a diameter of 5 km, this asteroid will fly over a position about 10 million km from Earth, which is close to the cosmic standard.

Meteorite simulation approaching the Earth.(Photo: CCO).

This meteorite is called Phaethon because its orbit has the closest flying point to the Sun when compared to all named meteors, only 20 million kilometers. By comparison, the closest planet to the Sun in the solar system is Mercury 46 million kilometers from the Sun.

It is interesting to go with the meteorite above. This meteor shower has the greatest intensity on December 13 and 14, with more than 100 meteors burning brightly in the sky and not causing any danger to the Earth.

The Geminids meteor shower takes place every year when the Phaethon meteorite moves near Earth.

'According to the evidence, this meteorite was formerly a large object, but approaching the Sun many times broke it into smaller pieces. If this continues, this meteorite will become the nucleus' , said Alexei Baigashov, head of the Astronomical Community at Federal University of Immanuel Kant Baltic.