Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




DEEP IMPACT
The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower
by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA
Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 09, 2009


The Geminid meteor shower has intensified since its discovery.

Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends. The best meteor shower of 2009 is about to fall over North America on a long, cold December night.

"It's the Geminid meteor shower," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "and it will peak on Dec. 13th and 14th under ideal viewing conditions."

A new Moon will keep skies dark for a display that Cooke and others say could top 140 meteors per hour. According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity should occur around 12:10 a.m. EST (0510 UT) on Dec. 14th.

The peak is broad, however, and the night sky will be rich with Geminids for many hours and perhaps even days around the maximum.

Cooke offers this advice: "Watch the sky during the hours around local midnight. For North Americans, this means Sunday night to Monday morning."

Researchers are interested to see what the Geminids do in 2009. The shower has been intensifying in recent decades and they wonder if the trend will continue.

Geminids are pieces of debris from a strange object called 3200 Phaethon. Long thought to be an asteroid, Phaethon is now classified as an extinct comet. It is, basically, the rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun. Earth runs into a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini: sky map.

When the Geminids first appeared in the late 19th century, shortly before the US Civil War, the shower was weak and attracted little attention. There was no hint that it would ever become a major display.

But now it has.

"The Geminids are strong-and getting stronger," says Cooke,

What's going on? Jupiter's gravity has been acting on Phaethon's debris stream, causing it to shift more and more toward Earth's orbit. Each December brings a deeper plunge into the debris stream.

Meteor expert Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (UWO) says the trend could continue for some time to come. "Based on modeling of the debris done by Jim Jones in the UWO meteor group back in the 1980s, it is likely that Geminid activity will increase for the next few decades, perhaps getting 20% to 50% higher than current rates."

A 50% increase would boost the Geminids to 200 or more meteors per hour, year in and year out. "That would be an amazing annual display," says Cooke.

Moreover, says Brown, "the proportion of large, bright Geminids should also increase in the next few decades, according to Jones' model." So the Geminids could turn into a "fireball shower."

Brown cautions that "other models of the debris stream come to different conclusions, in some cases suggesting that Geminids will decrease in intensity in the coming decades. We understand little about the details of the formation and evolution of Phaethon's debris despite many years of efforts."

Recent trends favor a good show. Enjoy the Geminids!

.


Related Links
Science@NASA
Geminid Sky Map
International Meteor Organization
Asteroid and Comet Impact Danger To Earth - News and Science






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








DEEP IMPACT
Geminids Meteor Shower: Nature's 'Holiday Light Show'
Greenebelt MD (SPX) Dec 08, 2009
The Geminids are one of the best meteor showers of the year and never seem to disappoint observers! Join Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office, located at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in a live web chat on Friday, December 11 from 3:00-4:00 EST to learn more about the Geminids meteor shower. This meteor shower gets the name "Geminids" because it appears to radiate from the ... read more


DEEP IMPACT
Researcher Delighted That LCROSS Confirms Lunar Prospector Findings

Circumlunar Missions: The Missing Link

Partial Gravity And The Moon

Astronomy Question Of The Week: What Happens On The Moon During A Lunar Eclipse

DEEP IMPACT
Spirit remains trapped in Martian sand

Opportunity Investigates 'Marquette' And 'Islington Bay'

Spirit's Diagnostic Wheel Tests Continue

Orbiter Puts Itself Into Safe Standby

DEEP IMPACT
Japan's 'space beer' sparkles among drinkers

Branson unveils Virgin Galactic spaceliner

NASA to attend Copenhagen climate meeting

NASA to launch space education program for Arab youth

DEEP IMPACT
Chang'e-1 Has Blazed A New Trail In China's Deep Space Exploration

China To Launch Second Lunar Probe In 2010

China To Launch Research Satellite In Near Future

China's military making strides in space: US general

DEEP IMPACT
Russia To Launch MIM1 Module To ISS Next Year

Russia Plans To Send 10 Spacecraft To ISS Next Year

SpaceX Begins NASA Astronaut Training For Dragon Spacecraft COTS Program

Four "Butterflynauts" Emerge On ISS

DEEP IMPACT
Helios 2B Military Observation Platform Given "Go" For Launch

Arianespace Marks 30 Years Of Launch Services Excellence

WISE Spacecraft Ready For Launch Dec 9

Ariane 5 Getting Ready To Launch Helios 2B Reconn Satellite

DEEP IMPACT
Superior Super Earths

UCF Space Experiment To Fly On New Rocket Ship

SOFIA Seeks Secrets Of Planetary Birth

Hunting For Planets In The Dark

DEEP IMPACT
Cost-Effective Satellite Connectivity Brings Dispersed Businesses Together

Space Debris Removal Gets Visibility

Taiwan to invest 65 million dollars in e-book industry

New way to make single-crystal structures




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement