THE GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: Tonight, Earth will pass through a stream of gravelly debris from "rock comet" 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Sky watchers far from city lights could see dozens of meteors per hour. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the dark hours before sunrise on Thursday, Dec. 14th, when the constellation Gemini is high overhead. There's more: As the shower peaks, Jupiter and the crescent Moon will be having a close encounter in the eastern pre-dawn sky. Sky maps: west, east. Browse: photo gallery.
AN EARLY GEMINID: Last night in the dark countryside near Portal, Arizona, Alan Dyer set up his camera to patrol the sky for early-arriving Geminids. He caught a good one:
."This was the brightest Geminid I recorded out of 1000 frames shot Dec. 12th, the night before the peak of the 2017 Geminid shower," says Dyer. "There were lots of meteors flying last night, promising a great show for the peak nights, Dec. 13th and 14th."
FAR OUT CHRISTMAS GIFTS: Helium doesn't pay for itself. That's why the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly cool things to the edge of space onboard their cosmic ray balloons--so you can buy them in our Christmas Store:
Crystal balls, solar eclipse pendants, pyramids, pickles and much more: they've all been to the edge of space and back, and they all make great holiday gifts. Every dollar spent in the store supports STEM education and high-altitude space weather research. Shop now!
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All proceeds support hands-on STEM education
GREEN DREAMS: "Last night's auroras were literally out of this world," reports Thomas Kast of Nordland, Norway. "For a few hours, bright arcs danced in the sky while I danced down on Earth--it was mind-blowing." He took this picture of the display, entitled Green Dreams:
"Earth's magnetic field must have buffered a huge amount of plasma before it unleashed it into our atmosphere," says Kast.
Indeed, before the verdant outburst, Earth had spent the previous 24 hours inside a stream of solar wind. The pressure of that gaseous material against our planet's magnetic field coupled with the accumulation of solar plasma inside Earth's magnetosphere was responsible for the dreamy display over Norway.
It could happen again in a few days when a new stream of solar wind reaches our planet, probably on Dec. 16th. The stream is flowing from a hole in the sun's atmosphere. Spewing electrified gas faster than 500 km/s, the hole is located close to the sun's equator and, thus, is in a good position to influence our planet when it turns our way. Free: Aurora Alerts.