Gemini meteors.. the end of the year with a luminous celestial show at a rate of 120 meteors per hour

Weather of Arabia - With the approaching end of the year, astronomers from all parts of the Arab world and the world are preparing to receive one of the most important annual astronomical events, which is the Gemini meteor shower, which reaches its climax on the evening of December 13 and 14 until sunrise. the morning.

What distinguishes a meteor shower from normal days is that you can encounter a few meteors here and there in the sky during normal nights, but on meteor shower nights the rate rises a lot, and in the case of "twins", this rate may reach 120 meteors per hour in the regions away from the spotlight.

What distinguishes the Gemini meteors from other meteors is that the number of meteors in them is the largest among the rest of the meteor showers, and the meteors in them are better for monitoring because they are slow (compared to the rest of the meteors), which makes them appear for a longer period of time, as the speed of the Gemini meteors reaches 35 km. per second.

The Gemini meteor shower results from the passage of the Earth, during its usual cycle around the sun, in a region of remnants left by the asteroid "3200 Phaethon", which astronomers believe may be a dormant comet or a new type of object called a "rocky comet". To make the remnants of debris and remnants separated from the asteroid over the years form denser clouds than most comets leave behind, so those remnants burn when they enter the atmosphere at huge speeds, causing this intense shine of the meteors, and the complete combustion of the meteor ends at a height of several kilometers, so it does not reach to the Earth's surface.

More: What are meteors? And why does it appear bright in the earth's sky?

The Gemini meteor shower usually occurs between the 4th and 17th of December of each year, but it peaks on the 13th and 14th of the same month, so it is an appropriate opportunity to monitor meteors.

How can meteors be seen?

The best place to see meteors is in remote places far from city lighting, so trips to the desert are usually active on meteor shower nights, but despite this, you can spot meteors with the naked eye in other areas so that the clarity of the meteors depends on the size of the lighting surrounding the place, and the degree of brightness The shooting star itself.

But this year (2022) the moon will rise on the night of December 13th at about 10:00 pm Mecca Al-Mukarramah time, and the face of the moon will be illuminated by more than two-thirds, . This reduces the chance of seeing some meteors, the number of which will increase as we get closer to sunrise, but this will not be a problem to discourage astronomical enthusiasts from going outside and monitoring the event.