NASA spaceweather Update GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of gravelly debris from rock comet 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid Geminid meteor shower. Last night, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, NASAs network of all-sky cameras detected three Geminid fireballs over the USA. This specimen from the desert southwest was clearly visible despite the glare from the waxing gibbous Moon: The Geminid hit Earths atmosphere traveling 32 km/s (72 thousand mph) and disintegrated completely 73 km (45 miles) above Earths surface. These values are typical of Geminids. Meteor sightings will increase in the nights ahead as Earth plunges deeper into the debris stream. Forecasters expect peak rates to occur on Dec. 13-14, when dark-sky observers in both hemispheres could see as many as 120 meteors per hour. Stay tuned for updates and, meanwhile, listen for Geminid echoes in the audio feed from our live meteor radar. spaceweather/
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 04:22:11 +0000
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