The Geminid meteor shower peaks this week, and it’ll be a special one

Get ready for what might be the best meteor shower of 2018. 

The Geminid meteor shower, which peaks late at night on Thursday into the wee hours of the morning Friday, could bring more than 100 meteors per hour to light pollution-free skies in dark areas around the world, according to NASA.

That’s a whole bunch of meteors.

“If you can see the familiar winter constellations Orion and Gemini in the sky, you’ll see some Geminids,” NASA explained in a skywatching video.

“Expect to see up to 120 meteors per hour from a dark sky location, but only after the first quarter moon sets around midnight your local time. From the Southern Hemisphere, observers should see fewer but still plenty of medium-speed meteors once Gemini rises above the horizon after midnight local time.”

Perhaps the best thing about a meteor shower is you don’t need any special gear to see it. All you need to do is bundle up and head out to a dark area with little cloud cover and an unobstructed view of the sky to see the shooting stars. 

Even if you’re in a light-polluted part of the world, you still might be able to see at least a handful of meteors per hour. If you can’t leave a city, try to find a dark park or a somewhere with as little artificial light as possible and get comfortable.

Patience is your best friend when watching a meteor shower. 

Grab a warm jacket or blanket and plan to camp out for quite a few hours to see as many meteors as you can. And remember, it takes about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. 

The Geminid meteor shower comes along once per year when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, making it somewhat unique. 

Usually, meteor showers are sparked by comets, which slough off a fair bit of debris during their trips around the sun. 

Scientists think that 3200 Phaethon — which orbits the sun every 1.4 Earth years — could be a “dead comet,” according to NASA, meaning it doesn’t develop a comet’s distinctive tail when it gets close to the sun and looks somewhat like an asteroid. 

That said, the object has a strange, elliptical orbit which suggests a cometary origin, NASA added.

“Due to its close approach to the sun, Phaethon is named after the character of Greek myth who drove the sun-god Helios’ chariot,” NASA said. 

“Phaethon is a small asteroid — its diameter measures only 3.17 miles (5.10 kilometers) across. It was astronomer Fred Whipple who realized that Phaethon is the source for the Geminid meteors.”