One of the brightest, most reliable meteor shows of the year is almost here — the Geminids are on their way!
I’m Jacob Marcus from Sacred Heart University’s Discovery Science Center and Planetarium in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and this is Discovery Deep Dive.
The Geminids are what happen when Earth flies through a trail of tiny asteroid debris — and those little bits burn up in our atmosphere, turning into quick, colorful streaks of light. Basically, space dust putting on its biggest show of the year.
And the timing’s great. You don’t have to stay up until 2 a.m. to see them — they start popping off around 9 or 10 at night and keep going ’til sunrise. On a good night, in an extremely dark area, you might catch 40 or 50 meteors an hour… and some years it’s even more. Based on where we are located, with the amount of light pollution, we may be only able to see 1 or 2 per hour.
For the best view, head to a dark sky region and away from city lights. If you don’t know where a dark sky region near you is, just look it up on google. No telescope, no binoculars — just your eyes. If you want to look toward the “official” spot in the sky, find Gemini. Not sure where it is? Look for the Little Dipper and follow it down — you’ll spot two bright stars close together. Those are the twins.
Give your eyes a few minutes to adjust, get cozy, and let the sky do the rest. It’s one of the most fun, easy stargazing nights of the year.
