The story begins in the second half of the 19th century, 1862, to be more exact when all of a sudden people saw many shooting stars visually originating from the constellation Gemini, from which it got its name – the Geminids. They were never recorded before that date but ever since have been a regular occurrence every mid December, and the intensity of the meteor shower it produces, is growing each year.
Last year the event was less visible due to a full moon, but this year the moon had a morning crescent so it gave a great opportunity to see as many as dozens of meteors every hour. As mentioned above, they originate from the direction of the Gemini constellation, more precisely, a few degrees from the star Castor (Alpha Geminorum).
The mystery about this “object” is that that the scientists can’t decide whether it is an asteroid or remnants of a dead comet. It acts like a comet all right but it has not tail. The theory is, that if it was a comet all of the ice got vaporized during its close encounters with the sun. The orbit it takes, brings it even closer to the sun than Mercury.
Whatever it is, it gave me a great performance yesterday evening. I live in Ljubljana, but as we had a very thick fog in the lower areas, I headed up towards the hills. I probably would have gotten an even better performance if I observed the sky early yesterday morning, but I still was not disappointed.
In any case, the meteor showers from 3200 Phaethon will intensify and will probably be fantastic on 14th 2093 when the comet/asteroid will pass the Earth closest as it has ever been: 0.0198 AU (astronomical units). For you and me this is just under 3 million kilometres.
Links:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids
- http://meteorshowersonline.com/geminids.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3200_Phaethon
- http://science.nasa.gov/…
The photo of a 2004 Geminid is courtesy of Mark Vornhusen, Gais, Switzerland
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