Meteor Shower December 2008

December Meteor Shower 2008 - The Geminids

The most distinguished Meteor Shower of December 2008 is the Geminids. This shower was discovered in 1862 and bewildered astronomers for over a century because they could not hit upon a parent comet accountable for the shower. More than one hundred years later in 1983, after a close encounter with our world, astronomers exposed the source, the 3200 Phaethon asteroid.

So, why is this so astounding? Usually meteor showers are caused by the debris from comets. You may or may not know, but a comet is sometimes called a “dirty snowball” because they are made up of rock and ice and have elliptical orbits around our Sun. As a comet nears the Sun, the ice particles melt and disperse meteoroids in its path. This path crosses Earth every year around the same time and at the very least in the same month, this is what causes meteor showers. Having stated this, the Geminids is caused by something completely different, or is it? An asteroid causes the Geminids. Some scientist believe that the 3200 Phaethon was at one time a comet and all the ice has simply melted away, leaving a huge rocky mass that still orbits the Sun. The path of the 3200 Phaethon gets really close to the Sun and seems to superheat the asteroid and now loosens the rocky material that it is composed of. The rocky material becomes meteoroids and when meteoroids break off the asteroid, they enter Earth’s atmosphere and become meteors.

The meteors one observes in this December Meteor Shower can be the size of a grain of sand and some are larger, possibly the size of tennis balls or grapefruits. Small meteoroids cause “shooting stars” or meteors and larger tennis ball-sized meteoroids can cause great fireballs in the sky.

To this day scientist still argue over whether the 3200 Phaethon is a comet in its late stages or just an asteroid that has the unique quality of causing meteor showers. The source of the Geminids is always a hot topic for debate and until we visit the 3200 Phaethon we won’t truly know whether this object is an asteroid or grandfather comet. For you it’s easy, just dress warmly, sit back with a lounge chair and gaze up at a cool December meteor shower known as the Geminids.

Browse around the site for the peak dates for the Geminids Meteor Shower of 2008.  Your comments and question are always welcome.