The Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) will broadcast from Extremadura and from the observatories of La Palma and Tenerife the most intense Geminids meteor showerwhich will take place on the nights of December 13 and 14, the IAC reported this Friday.
The IAC explains that, for more than 10 years, the Geminids have been characterized as the most intense meteor shower of the year, exceeding 100 meteors per hour, followed by the Perseids and the Quadrantids.
Nevertheless, This year, on the night of December 13-14, the Moon will be 72% illuminated, which will make it difficult to observe the weakest meteors..
The IAC will broadcast this meteor shower on the sky-live.tv channel, in which from 10:30 p.m., Canary Islands time, on December 13, it will offer images from the observatories of the Teide (Tenerife) and Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma), as well as from Extremadura, within the Extremadura Buenas Noches project.
maximum activity
This year Geminids have been observed since November 19 and can be seen until December 24, and their maximum activity is expected at 1:00 p.m., Canary Islands time, from December 14 and the nights of December 12 to 13 and from 13 to 14.
This rain, one of the most attractive for many researchers, was observed for the first time in 1862.
The IAC notes that the meteors seem to be born – they have their radiant – in the constellation of Geminis (the Twins), which are close to the well-known constellation of Orion.
To ensure that you see as many Geminids as possible, it is best to be in a dark place – free of light pollution produced by cities – and with clear horizons.
It is advisable to wait, at least, until midnight and fix your gaze on an area of the sky, where it will remain, at least, for a few minutes to be able to “detect” a Geminid, and it is recommended to lie on the ground and wear warm clothes .
And the most important: arm yourself with patienceunderlines the IAC.
give both hemispheres
The Geminids is a shower that can be observed from both hemispheres and, in addition, it has the characteristic that the meteors are slower than those of other showers of stars, such as the Perseids.
Despite the fact that from the northern hemisphere the activity will be greater than from the south -because the radiant will be higher above the horizon-, from the southern skies intense activity will also be observed during the night.
The so-called “shooting stars” are actually small dust particles of different sizes (between fractions of millimeters to centimeters in diameter) left by comets -or asteroids, as in this rain- throughout their orbits around the Sun, due to the “thaw” produced by solar heat.
The resulting cloud of particles (called meteoroids) is scattered by the comet’s orbit and is traversed every year by the Earth in its orbit around our star.
During this encounter, the meteoroids heat up, mainly due to friction, as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, partially or completely vaporizing, creating the well-known luminous streaks or “shooting stars” that receive the scientific name of meteors.
meteorites
Those larger meteors that survive atmospheric friction could impact the Earth’s surface becoming meteorites.
Usually, Meteor showers originate from the melting of comets, but this is not the case with the Geminids. A small celestial body – the asteroid (3200) Phaethon – has been the presumed progenitor of the Geminids since 1983.
The team led by Dave Jewitt (UCLA), aided by NASA’s STEREO probes – our eyes on the Sun to “hunt” asteroids and comets as they approach the star – realized, in 2010, that Phaethon was experiencing a increase in intensity of its brightness.
rocky kite
It was something new that they called a “rocky comet.” A hybrid between an asteroid and a comet? In short, it is a curious asteroid that gets so close to the Sun -it does so every 1.4 years, similar to how a comet would- that the heat emitted by our star “burns” the dust residues that cover the rocky surface and thus forms a kind of “gravel tail”.
The forecasts for the Geminids this year are good with activity rates similar to other years. This year the best time to observe the Geminids will be the first hours of the night as the Moon will be low on the eastern horizon.
In a dark place it will be possible to detect around a Geminid every 3-4 minutes, and the slowness of these meteors makes it easy to see, says Miquel Serra-Ricart, a researcher at the IAC.
