The Geminids meteor shower will peak on Tuesday night - NPR

A antheral watches a meteor during the Geminid meteor ablution implicit Brimham Rocks successful North Yorkshire. Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images hide caption

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Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images

A antheral watches a meteor during the Geminid meteor ablution implicit Brimham Rocks successful North Yorkshire.

Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images

One of the champion and astir reliable meteor showers of the twelvemonth volition highest this week.

The Geminids meteor shower, which streaks crossed the nighttime entity each twelvemonth successful mid-December, volition highest connected Tuesday nighttime and into Wednesday.

Bright, aggravated colors are often associated with the Geminids, according to the American Meteor Society. They're disposable crossed the globe, nary substance your clip zone, and volition past each night.

The Geminids archetypal appeared successful the mid-1800s, but were not arsenic noteworthy astatine the time: Only 10 to 20 meteors were seen per hour, according to NASA. Now, during highest enactment and cleanable upwind conditions, 100 to 150 meteors per hr are disposable (though cleanable conditions are rare).

"Rich successful green-colored fireballs, the Geminids are the lone ablution I volition brave acold December nights to see," Bill Cooke, the pb for NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said successful a statement earlier last year's shower.

The ablution gets its namesake from the constellation, Gemini. That constellation is the constituent successful the entity wherever the Geminids look to originate from.

Originating from the debris of an asteroid, the Geminids question 78,000 miles per hour, implicit 40 times faster than a bullet, according to NASA. It's highly improbable for the meteors to scope the ground, since astir Geminids pain up astir 45 to 55 miles supra ground, the abstraction bureau added.

NASA says the ablution is 1 of the champion opportunities for young viewers to spot meteors since it begins astir 9 p.m. oregon 10 p.m.

For the champion viewing, find an country distant from metropolis oregon thoroughfare lights. You should prevarication connected your backmost with your feet facing south, taking successful arsenic overmuch of the nighttime entity arsenic possible. And, beryllium diligent — it could instrumentality astir 30 minutes for your eyes to afloat adjust.

The past accidental to spot the Geminids this twelvemonth volition beryllium Dec. 17, NASA says.