COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – On the nights of December 13th and 14th, we’ll keep an eye on our sky as the Geminid Meteor Shower peaks! This meteor shower is known to put on a show with bright and colorful streaks racing across the sky. The Geminids originate from asteroid 3200 Phaeton, which has an orbit around the Sun that lasts 524 days.
As is the case with most meteor showers, they’re caused by debris from a comet or asteroid that has interacted with Earth’s orbit. The Geminids’ bright and colorful presentation comes from small objects such as dirt or rocks that catch fire as they move into Earth’s atmosphere.
To view this meteor shower, you’ll want to look at our eastern sky on the nights of December 13th and 14th. Typically, these meteors appear around Jupiter in our sky, which is bright and twinkles like a star at night. Underneath the darkest sky possible, up to 120 meteors could be seen each hour!
The best possible way to view these meteors will be to escape the city lights. Once you have, give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness and follow the eastern sky. Looking ahead to the forecast for viewing this weekend, we’ll have a few clouds in our sky, but should still be able to enjoy this astral spectacle.
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