TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - If Jakarta is not rainy tonight, you will be able to see Geminid meteor shower. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says the peak of the meteor shower will take place at 4 am. “It will be the best shower this year,” NASA writes Tuesday on its website.
Sunglasses or special devices will not be needed to see the meteor shower but the sky must be clear. Before watching it, you better stay in a dark room for 20 minutes so your eyes can adapt to see in dark places.
Moreover, you should also see it in places with minimum light polution. Thereby you may be able to see meteor showers in every one or two minutes. Meaning that meteor shower intensity will be high, peaking at 120 meteors per hour.
According to Bill Cooke, a researcher of NASA Meteorid Environment Office, moonlight also affects the beauty of Geminid meteor shower. He explains that moonlight blocks the August Perseids, making Geminid constelation brigther.
Cooke says that while other meteor showers occur when comets enter Earth’s atmosphere, Geminid meteor shower is caused by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which comes close to Earth in every 1.4 years that brings with it Gemini dusts into Earth’s atmosphere.
The meteor shower enters Earth atmosphere slowly, allowing longer observation. As written in Space.com, Gemenid meteor showers travel at a speed of 127,500 kilometers per hour or almost two times slower than the Perseid that travels at 214,400 kilometers per hour, Orinoid (237,500 kilometers per hour) and Leonid (260,700 kilometers per hour).
“It could be slower as the Earth does not hit the particles of the meteor stream,” Space.com wrotes. “Moreover, physically, the meteor shower Geminid is more robust and compact.”
AMRI MAHBUB
