SHOOTING STARS. Hundreds of shooting stars will crisscross the sky tonight from Tuesday December 13 to Wednesday December 14, 2022. This is one of the most famous astronomical events of winter: the Geminid Rain.
[Mis à jour le 13 décembre 2022 à 19h16] The show is going to be promising. With up to 150 shooting stars per hour, the Geminids are an event not to be missed for sky lovers tonight. This year, you will have two successive nights to enjoy the peak of activity of this phenomenon. Indeed, the show begins this Tuesday, December 13 and extends until Thursday, December 15, promising you two nights of observation. If however you miss this appointment, don’t panic, it is only the most active period of the Geminids. But the latter are observable over a longer range, from December 7 to 17, 2022.
This year, the observation conditions are not optimal since the Moon will be very visible in the sky at the time of peak Geminid activity. It will be necessary to take advantage of the beginning of the night, before 10 p.m. on Tuesday December 13, 2022, and before 11 p.m. on Wednesday December 14, 2022 to admire this celestial spectacle before the Moon rises and masks the less brilliant meteors. To put the odds on your side, choose a location protected from light pollution, bring blankets, a hot drink and don’t forget to make a wish for each shooting star you have the chance to see!
The Geminids are a shower of shooting stars, also called meteors, that can be observed every winter in the month of December. This year, they take place from December 7 to 17 with a peak of activity on December 13 and 14, 2022. We can expect between 60 and 75 meteors per hour and up to 120 to 160 meteors per hour during the peak of activity .
Shooting stars are actually dust particles that create luminous streaks in the sky by disintegrating in the atmosphere of our planet. The Geminids come from a celestial object named “3200 Phaeton”, an asteroid which is speculated to be the nucleus of an ancient comet, which orbits the Sun. Each year, when the Earth passes through the dust cloud thus generated, the Geminid meteor shower takes place.
This year, the Moon is in the game and may partially spoil your observation because of its strong luminosity. To have the best chance of observing these shooting stars, meet this Tuesday, December 13 before 10 p.m. and Wednesday, December 14 before 11 p.m. Before these hours, the Moon will not be up and you will enjoy a very dark sky. Once the Moon has appeared, only the brightest shooting stars will be visible.
To enjoy the spectacle offered by the Geminids, you don’t need any special equipment. All you have to do is step outside and look at the sky in the right place. You must locate the constellation of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, above the eastern horizon. This is where shooting stars should appear. To orient yourself more easily, you can use a mobile application like Sky Tonight, which will allow you to identify the constellations and their position in the sky.
Several major stellar meetings of shooting stars take place during the year 2022. This Tuesday, December 13, we do not miss the phenomenon of Geminideas. If you can’t make it, don’t panic. The Geminids are observable until December 17, 2022. Then discover the other most notable meteor showers that appear in the sky throughout the year, in chronological order of appearance below:
- The Ursids : this meteor shower is active from December 17 to 26, associated with comet 8P/Tuttle. The peak of the Ursids takes place just before Christmas on the night of December 21 to 22. It is of low intensity, with 10 to 50 meteors per hour.
- The Quadrantids : active during the winter nights between January 1 and 5, they show a rate of 120 meteors per hour during the night of January 2 and 3. They originate from the sleepy comet 2003 EH1.
- The Lyrids : located in the constellation of Lyra and active from April 15 to April 28, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks on the night of April 21 to 22, with a rate of 5 to 20 observable meteors per hour . It is associated with comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher.
- The Eta Aquarids : active from April 19 until May 28, mainly visible in the southern hemisphere, the meteor shower is supplied by comet Halley. Its peak is located on the night of May 5-6, with a rate of 70 meteors per hour.
- The Orionids : active from October 2 to November 7, these shooting stars are particularly observable from October 20 to 21, in mid-autumn. The Orionids, named after the constellation Orion (easy to recognize, its seven brightest stars form a bow tie or slightly tilted hourglass!), are visible in the northern hemisphere at this time of year . Depending on the year, between 20 and 30 shooting stars pierce the sky every hour.
- The Leonids are a cluster of dust, or meteoroids, made up of debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. With their radiant located in the zodiac constellation of Leo, the Leonid meteor shower appears from November 14 to November 21 with peak activity from November 17 to 18. If nearly 200 shooting stars are observable in the sky per hour, every 33 years (in 2031), the spectacle becomes unforgettable after the passage of comet 55P/Temple-Tuttle: the shower of shooting stars then turns into a real storm, with thousands of meteors in one night!
Find below all the essential advice for good preparation and good observation of the stars. Photography enthusiasts will learn all the tricks necessary to immortalize these magical celestial ballets.
No danger or need for specific equipment! Shooting stars are visible to the naked eye by everyone. No need therefore to take out the binoculars or the telescope, given the high speed at which the fireballs pass through the Earth’s atmosphere (an average of 50 km/second). About a quarter of shooting stars leave visible trails for several seconds. To be able to observe a shower of shooting stars in an optimal way, the sky must not be obscured by clouds, or by light pollution.
The chance of seeing a shooting star depends mainly on the period of observation, although other factors such as the observation area come into play. Shooting stars are actually small dust particles that enter the Earth’s atmosphere very quickly by producing a luminous trail visible from Earth. This dust comes from comets which, approaching the Sun, see their ice evaporate and pulverize very small pieces of rock forming a cloud of small rocky particles. When the Earth passes through these clouds, this dust creates shooting stars that can be admired in the sky.
This is why you will have an increased chance of observing shooting stars when the Earth passes through one of these swarms. During the summer, you can enjoy the Perseids whose peak intensity takes place at the beginning of August with around a hundred shooting stars per hour. During the Quadratides and the Gemenides, which take place in early January and mid-December respectively, you can observe up to 120 shooting stars per hour.
Finally, the viewing conditions can influence the number of shooting stars you will see. Give preference to sparsely urbanized areas, protected from light pollution. Try to find a place where the horizon is clear and a cloudless night.
This tradition seems to come from ancient Greece, according to the Huffington Post. At the time, it was thought that the gods looked at the Earth by lifting the celestial vault, like a lid on the world. In doing so, they sometimes caused stars to fall: shooting stars. These events were interpreted as the sign that a god was observing the Earth, that is to say the best time to send him a wish.
The stellar tradition, which occurs each year at the same period, will be perpetuated, but beware of confusion: it is obviously not a question of “star” strictly speaking, but of dust which passes very close to our planet and whose some come into “collision” with the Earth’s atmosphere. Shooting stars have nothing to do with stars. It is an extinct comet, or else an asteroid which, while moving, leaves behind a large number of debris.
Luminous phenomena, shooting stars (or meteors) thus appear each time tiny meteorites come into contact with the dense layers of the atmosphere, at speeds ranging from 15 to 70 km per second. Due to the friction of the air, this dust – sometimes more or less large pebbles – becomes incandescent before volatilizing. Electrified as they pass, the air becomes luminescent, giving the impression of persistent streaks that seem to come from the same place in the sky: the constellation of Lyra for the Lyrids, that of Orion for the Orionids, Perseus for the Perseids , Leo for the Leonids or Gemini for the Geminids…