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Geminid meteor shower will be bright enough to be seen in NYC this month

By

Rosemary Misdary

Published Dec 3, 2023

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A composite black and white photo of a meteor shower taken by NASA.

 

NASA/MSFC/Danielle Moser, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office

By

Rosemary Misdary

Published Dec 3, 2023

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This month, New Yorkers have a rare opportunity to enjoy a meteor shower in city parks or from the rooftops of apartment buildings.

The Geminids meteor shower promises around 120 shooting stars per hour during its peak on the evening of Dec. 13 through dawn the next day.

Bart Fried, executive vice president of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York, recommended lying down on a rooftop or in a dark city park and looking up at the sky. As your eyes adjust, the shooting stars – hurtling through the Earth’s atmosphere at a rate of 22 miles per second – should become more visible.

“The shooting star goes by, but then you look behind it and you see a glow that persists for a while,” Fried said. “They just leave this glowing trail, and a lot of it's also ionized oxygen so sometimes these trails are greenish.”

When to watch the Geminids

The Geminid meteor shower is expected to be so bright it’ll be visible in light-polluted New York City.

A new moon will further enhance the celestial spectacle, because lunar glow won’t interfere with the light show.

“The enemy of all meteor-shower-watching is the moon,” said Jackie Faherty, astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. “I love the moon most of the time, but the moon is also basically a spotlight in your sky that doesn't allow you to see fainter objects.”

The meteors appear to be traveling from the constellation Gemini, which gives the Geminids their name. Unlike most meteor showers, which are made up of debris left behind by icy comets, the Geminids are dense pieces of metal and rock from a 3-mile-long asteroid, 3200 Phaethon, on its 1.4-year orbit around the sun.

The meteors’ metallic properties give the cosmic fireworks a colorful glow of white, yellow, red and blue. Traces of sodium and calcium — the same ingredients used in humanmade firework displays — add to the color.

“When you heat up something that has the metal in it, it will ignite as a specific color,” Faherty said. “The color will depend on what kind of material is getting shed.”

The Geminids’ shooting stars are unique for the lingering, glittery trajectory lines they leave behind. While the shower runs from Nov. 19 until Christmas Eve, the period of greatest activity is Dec. 4 to Dec. 17.

Faherty compared a meteor’s entry into Earth’s atmosphere to driving through a blizzard.

“They burn up. Basically the friction between the Earth's atmosphere and the object as it's coming in just disintegrates it,” Faherty said. “It's basically like when you're driving through a snowstorm and you see the snow coming at you, and you're kind of plowing into it.”

She also gave a more scientific explanation: Energy released by the meteor's disintegration causes the bright colors, while the streaks of light are pieces of asteroids completely burning up.

“I don't get too excited about meteor showers, but this one is worth it,” Fried said. “This one has a very good chance to be an excellent meteor shower, and I will actually take the time to get to a reasonably dark site and kick back and watch some meteors.”

Fried said he plans to watch the Geminids at Jones Beach.

Telescopes and binoculars are discouraged for meteor showers. They are more useful for gazing at celestial objects that are much farther away, such as Saturn and its rings.

The Amateur Astronomers Association is hosting stargazing events throughout the month across the five boroughs. Their telescopes will be pointed at Jupiter, its red spot, and its four largest moons, which cast shadows on the planet’s surface. Special gear isn't necessary to view Jupiter, though; the planet is visible to the unaided eye.

“You're probably going to think [Jupiter] is] a star, but it's going to be glaringly bright, so don't mistake it, it's not a star, it's a planet,” Faherty said.

Telescopes are not necessary for viewing the Orion constellation and its dogs, Canis Minor and Canis Major, are also bright sights in December, which has the shortest night of the year, the winter solstice on Dec. 21. In the sky, the stars appear as very bright pinpricks.

To navigate the winter constellations, Faherty recommended starting with Orion. The trio of diagonal stars that make up the belt are recognizable in the cosmic chaos. The orange-red supergiant Betelgeuse forms the shoulder, and the bright, blue-white star known as Rigel marks the edge of the tunic hem.

Following Orion are two dogs, the constellations Canis Minor and Canis Major. The latter constellation includes the dog star, Sirius, one of the brightest stars in the sky.

Under Orion’s belt, the pink, purple and blue Orion Nebula Cluster is one of the closest areas of star formation. This 3-million-year-old stellar nursery is 1,500 light years away. With a telescope, the heart of the enormous cloud of dust and gas is demarcated by four bright stars that form a trapezoid known as the Trapezium cluster. The stars in this area are young and in their earliest years.

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new york city

environment

new york state

astronomy

Rosemary Misdary

Rosemary is health & science reporter. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 646-544-9524.

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