The Geminid meteor shower treated stargazers all over the world with a magical sky spectacle earlier in Australia and expected to be seen elsewhere in the world starting tonight. It was estimated that there were 150 meteors per hour that were seen during that moment in Australia.
Most of the times meteor showers occured because of comets leaving behind debris as they pass by Earth. Geminid's is different though because it is associated with the 5 kilometers wide asteroid 3200 Phaeton.
"The intensity of the meteor shower depends on the density of the debris trail, how deeply into it we pass and whether we pass through a single trail or more than one," Ian Musgrave from the University of Adelaide said. Moreover, according to Astronomy Ireland, this meteor shower show will peak tonight at their territories. It is expected that up 20 times more shooting stars will be visible during this period.
The organization was also asking people to count how many meteors are visible every 15 minutes in the span of 7 days. They should submit their results so that Astronomy Ireland can track if the annual shower is getting weaker or stronger.
"The shower lasts all night and should be most easily visible when the sky is dark, between the hours of 10.30pm and 4.30am. Normally around one meteor is visible every 10 minutes, but during this period, that can rise to one every minute," Astronomy Ireland said.
Irish weather is "expected to be mostly cloudy at the best times," it still encouraged people to keep an eye on the sky the whole week.
"The Geminids are an annual meteor show visible across most of the world," Dr. Musgrave said. "You can see them from Australia in reasonable numbers."
Many shared spectacular images of the comet from vantage points in the United States, United Arab Emirates and Egypt through social media especially Instagram.
