This meteor shower can throw dozens of shooting stars per hour under ideal conditions.
December is a busy month between the holiday season, the winter solstice and the occasional aurora borealis. It also hosts one of the best meteor showers of the year, with the Geminids. This often underrated meteor shower doesn’t get the attention that the Perseids meteor shower gets, but it often rains down just as many meteors if you’re willing to brave the cold to go out and see them.
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Geminids, known for its bright, colorful shooting stars, began the show on Thursday and will end on Dec. 17. It’s not the longest-lasting meteor shower, but don’t let its short length fool you. It has one of the most active peaks of any named meteor shower and is capable of throwing over 100 meteors per hour in a good year, according to the American Meteor Society. The Geminids meteor shower peaks on Saturday evening.
It comes to Earth thanks to the 3200 Phaethon asteroid. This is unusual because most meteor showers are fed from comets, which tend to have tails made of ice, dust and rock.
