THE SOLAR WIND HAS ARRIVED: As predicted, Earth is entering a stream of high-speed solar wind (600+ km/s). First contact with the stream on Dec. 12th produced a nice display of auroras over Northern Europe. The light show could continue tonight during the peak of the Geminid meteor shower . Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
THE GEMINID METEOR SHOWER PEAKS TONIGHT: The best meteor shower of 2025 peaks tonight when Earth passes through a stream of debris from 'rock-comet' 3200 Phaethon. Forecasters expect dozens of bright Geminids per hour. No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the moonless hours between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. Jupiter is there, too! Sky map.
Last night, Dec. 12-13, Alan C. Tough caught this early Geminid meteoroid disintegrating over Elgin, Moray, Scotland:
"It flew through Cygnus during the breakup of an aurora display around 11 p.m.," says Tough.
There should be many more of these tonight as Earth passes through the core of the Geminid debris stream. Meteor rates on Dec. 13-14 should triple what people saw on Dec. 12-13. For reference, last night NASA cameras captured 35 Geminid fireballs (meteors brighter than Venus) over the USA. Activity curves suggest more than 100 will be detected tonight. Enjoy the show!
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