Last night saw one of the world’s biggest and brightest meteor showers; but just in case you missed it here in the UAE doesn’t mean you have to wait until next year to enjoy.
While it might be daylight here in the UAE, it’s still dark elsewhere around the world. And the CosmoSapiens YouTube channel has just began broadcasting from the United States and parts of Spain.
You can check out the live video right here:
The Geminids are considered by astronomers to be some of the brightest meteor showers of the year. They are fast, bright and colourful – which makes for a spate-spectacle that even the casual viewer can enjoy.
The Gemenids are around 200 years old, and reach their annual peak on December 13. They will still be visible later tonight, but in far fewer numbers.
Last year, the bright light of a full moon meant only 20-30 meteors were visible per hour. However, this year there were no such problems.
At around 2AM Gulf Standard Time, the skies were lit up with more than 60-120 meteors per hour.
The Gemenids occur every year as the asteroid 3200 Phaethon passes the sun, every 1.4-years. As it flies by earth, our gravity attracts parts of the asteroid’s debris field and we see the smaller meteors burn up in our atmosphere.
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