{"id":799700,"date":"2025-12-13T15:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799700"},"modified":"2025-12-13T15:54:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:54:28","slug":"the-geminids-meteor-shower-peaks-tonight-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=799700","title":{"rendered":"The Geminids meteor shower peaks tonight : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n This photo taken late Dec. 14, 2018, with a long time exposure shows a meteor streaking through the night sky over Myanmar during the Geminids meteor shower seen from Wundwin township near Mandalay city.
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Ye Aung Thu\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Ye Aung Thu\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Turn your attention skyward Saturday evening and you should be able to catch the peak of the annual Geminids meteor shower.<\/p>\n

The yellow dancing streaks light up the night sky every December with meteors zipping through the heavens at a rate of 120 an hour, according to NASA<\/u>.<\/p>\n

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Stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere will have the best view, but the meteor shower will be visible in the Southern Hemisphere as well.<\/p>\n

Most meteor showers are the debris left behind from comets \u2014 large, tailed blobs of ice and dust. But the Geminids shower originates from Asteroid 3200 Phaethon \u2014 a relatively small (3.17 miles across) \u2014 celestial oddity that scientists are still trying to understand.<\/p>\n

Asteroids differ from comets in that asteroids are rocky metallic masses typically found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, while comets are typically mostly ice.<\/p>\n