- December 14, 2014
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Astronomers are ready to witness the Geminids, one of the most meteor showers active, this Saturday night will again show the most activity every December.
reports indicate that weather conditions are “perfect” to see the light show.
The Geminids are repeated every year when the orbit of the Earth and a stream of particles collide at one point, located in the constellation of Gemini, hence its name.
Rain Star high intensity shows maximum activity in mid-December. This year in particular will do on Sunday 7 to 17 December.
It is estimated that the Geminids produce between 50 and 100 shooting stars per hour. They can shine in various colors and include quick bursts of two or three.
The best time to see the meteors will be approximately at 01:00 GMT.
The astrophysicist at the Astronomical Institute Canarias (IAC), Miquel Serra Ricart, explained that fall half a meteor every two minutes.
Cloud “debris”
Calls stars shooting are actually tiny dust particles of different sizes, some smaller than grains of sand left by the comet along their orbits around the sun.
Due to “thaw” produced by solar heat, the stream resulting particles (meteoroids) is dispersed by the comet’s orbit and is crossed each year by the Earth its orbit around the sun.
During the meeting, the dust particles disintegrate rapidly upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere, creating the known light strokes receiving the scientific name of meteors.
This is true for most rainfall, but not for the Geminids, as there is no comet match the path of the cloud of “debris”.
Its origin was a mystery until solar probes Stereo (NASA) confirmed the emergence of a small tail on the asteroid 3200 Phaethon (at closest approach to the Sun or perihelion) single object moving in the same orbit as the cloud causing Geminid meteoroids.
From that point, Phaethon 3200 is known as “rock comet”: an asteroid that comes close to the sun thus enabling a queue is formed by surface disruption due to overheating <. / p>
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