The Geminid meteor will have a Monday-Tuesday peak which is expected to be obscured in the West Coast state and city by the clouds from atmospheric rivers, and clouds and rain. This is forecast to persist through Thursday. Though there may be a chance to catch the end of the meteor shower by Friday, December 17th.
Geminid Meteor Lighting up the Sky
In fact, as Earth does pass through the massive dusty cloud. It will trail the 3-mile-wide space rock 3200 Phaethon. It is the nighttime sky that will light up with shooting stars in the coming days.
Every December 7th to the 17, the Geminid meteor shower will occur. It is expected to reach its peak this year. It will be from the night of December 13th into the morning of December 14th. Those hours are characterizing for seeing blazing fireballs, NASA said.
“The window will be Friday night,” said Drew Peterson. He is the forecaster with the National Weather Service. “Moreover, I cannot say it’s going to be completely clear. Moreover, there are still going to be some clouds. In fact, it does look like it will be better later Friday night. It would be versus Saturday morning. In fact, it will be looking into eight days ahead of trying to forecast the cloud cover. Therefore, it could really change between now and then.”
The North Bay said Peterson is more than likely to have clear skies than areas south of the Golden Gate in San Francisco.
There is a stream of small particles that are left causing by the Geminid meteor shower. It has been left behind by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, said Gerald McKeegan. He is the adjunct astronomer at Chabot Space & Science Center.
“Very close to the sun is where the orbit goes periodically. In fact, it may really be a remnant of an old comet,” McKeegan did write in an email. In fact, when it is close to the sun, and small grains are then releasing from the asteroid’s surface. Then it can drift into a stream of particles which orbit around the sun and then cross the Earth’s orbital path.”