Watch Year's Best Meteor Shower this Weekend
Every December, the Geminids light up the night sky.
As the holiday season approaches, skywatchers can begin celebrating early with Mother Nature’s gift of a celestial fireworks show: the Geminid meteor shower.
Considered one of the best astronomical events of the year, the Geminids return every December 13 and 14, with dozens of shooting stars per hour lighting up the night sky. And this year’s performance promises to be particularly good since the moon will be out of the sky during peak times, creating ideal conditions to view even the faintest of shooting stars.
Most meteors are not big chunks of rock or metal, but sand-grain sized particles. Traveling at incredible speeds—sometimes over 100,000 miles per hour—they burn up within a fraction of a second after slamming into the upper atmosphere.
