Looking up - The 2006 Geminid Meteor Shower

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NASA Science News

NASA Science News for December 12, 2006
The best meteor shower of the year peaks this week on Thursday, Dec. 14th.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/12dec_geminids.htm?list113887

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml !

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Take a look at the orbit of Asteroid 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB) believed to be the source of the debris that Earth passes through for the Geminid Meteor Shower. You will see that it is quite a bit out of the ecliptic plain.

Think there might be a time when the asteroid 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB) passes by Earth where the two orbits cross. That should make for quite a meteor show.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=Phaethon&group=all&search=Search


Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/12dec_geminids.htm?list113887
The 2006 Geminid Meteor Shower

Dec. 12 , 2006: The best meteor shower of the year peaks this week on Dec.
14th.

"It's the Geminid meteor shower," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama. "Start watching on Wednesday evening, Dec. 13th, around 9 p.m. local time," he advises. "The display will start small but grow in intensity as the night wears on. By Thursday morning, Dec. 14th, people in dark, rural areas could see one or two meteors every minute."

The source of the Geminids is a mysterious object named 3200 Phaethon. "No one can decide what it is," says Cooke.

The mystery, properly told, begins in the 19th century: Before the mid-1800s there were no Geminids, or at least not enough to attract attention. The first Geminids appeared suddenly in 1862, surprising onlookers who saw dozens of meteors shoot out of the constellation Gemini. (That's how the shower gets its name, the Geminids.)

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More to the story ...

Geminid sky map -- from Spaceweather.com http://spaceweather.com/images2006/14dec06/skymap_north.gif

3200 Phaethon -- 3D orbit
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=Phaethon&group=all&search=Search

History of the Geminids
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/geminidhistory.html

Geminid Photo Galleries:
2004, http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_13dec04.htm
2002, http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_14dec02.html
2001 http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_13dec01.html

The Vision for Space Exploration
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/index.html

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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