The biggest meteor shower in 2007

Astronomers said that in the night and tomorrow night, the most spectacular meteor shower of the year will reach its peak. Countries in East Asia, Pacific and North America can observe this phenomenon very well.

Astronomers David Levy and Stephen Edberg wrote about this meteor shower as follows: If you have not seen Geminid meteor shower, you may not have seen meteor shower.

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Image of comet dust strip in the universe (Photo: ND)

The meteor shower was named Geminid because it happened close to the big star Castor (beaver) in the constellation Geminid (Gemini).

Geminids meteor shower began to appear in the mid-19th century and has always been considered the biggest meteor shower of the year. For a long time the origin of the Geminids meteor was quite mysterious, astronomers tried to find comets that caused this meteor shower. But things were only clarified in 1983, when NASA discovered the 3200 Phaethon object probably the source of the annual Geminids meteor shower 7-12-17.

Meteors occur when small pieces of matter are attracted to and ignited by the Earth forming a long trail when it passes through the atmosphere. Ordinary meteor showers all originate from a comet.

Comets on its journey approached the Sun, rising temperatures make matter of comets evaporate and under the pressure of the solar wind, creating dust, ice and gas tails. Small matter consists of dust and ice scattered from comets scattered around its orbit.

When the Earth in orbit around its Sun enters this dusty area, there will be meteor showers. The great meteor showers of the year such as Perseids took place in August originating from the dust of comets Swift - Tuttle, the Leonids meteor shower took place in November derived from Comet Tempel - Tuttle.

With the 3200 Phaethon object - the cause of the Geminids meteorite, it is now unlike a comet but as an asteroid with solid material rather than ice and water. But astronomers believed that 3200 Phaeteon was the core of a comet that had been blown away by the solar wind.

Previous studies have shown that the Geminid meteor shower is famous for having slow, brilliant, brilliant meteor stars and fireballs that have small meteorites, low light and light objects. medium light.

The average speed of the Geminid meteor is about 35km / sec. They are bright and white, however, unlike the Perseids meteor shower, they leave long, visible streaks on the way down.

(Photo: abc.net.au)

Geminid meteor shower is four times more dense than regular meteor showers. At peak, up to 120 shooting stars can be counted in an hour. The Geminid meteor shower is beautiful every year, but according to British astronomer Alastair McBeath, the meteor shower this year is huge.

Last year, Geminid meteor shower was obscured by the moon but this year, the new moon started on December 9, so on the nights of 13, 14-12, crescent moon and early dive, the sky will darken, causing For conditions of observing meteor shower, it becomes perfect.

Mr. McBeath estimates that the Geminid meteor shower will peak at 1445 GMT, December 14. That means that countries from central East Asia across the Pacific to Alaska will be the best observation points.

What to do to observe the meteor shower

Geminid meteor shower begins at the eastern-northeast horizon in the early evening.

The image of the rain will become clearer after 22 hours (local time) because the light emanating from meteorites becomes brilliant in the east of the sky at this time. However, the best images can only be observed at 2 am - the time when Phaethon passes through the Earth - when meteor showers appear right above the observer's head.

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