Geminid Meteor Shower over Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona

Geminid Meteor Shower over Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona

Speeding towards Earth, meteors from the Geminid meteor shower streak across the sky above the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, in Arizona. Stretching across the center of the sky is the dusty arm of the Milky Way, arching over the radiant of the meteor shower in the constellation Gemini on the right. This image was captured during the peak of this year’s shower on December 14, 2023.

The Geminid meteor shower is one of the most reliable meteor showers. Like other meteor showers, these fireballs are rocky particles zooming through our atmosphere and brightly burning until they disintegrate long before they hit the ground. The particles from the Geminids come from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, unlike most meteor showers, that originate from comets.

The Mayall telescope is the largest telescope at KPNO and is a great sight alongside the circumstellar phenomena of our Solar System. The telescope is currently home to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI, led by the US Department of Energy, is acquiring the spectra of tens of millions of galaxies and quasars and has already created the largest and most detailed 3D map of the Universe ever, which is aimed at revealing the effects of dark energy in the Universe.

This photograph was created by carefully stacking a series of photos, captured within a two-hour period. The foreground and background were stacked separately using the same sequence of images before being recombined into this image.

Rob Sparks, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.

Every December we have a chance to see one of our favorite meteor showers—the Geminids. All meteors appear to come from the same place in the sky called the radiant. The Geminids appear to radiate from a point in the constellation Gemini, hence the name “Geminids.”

Observations show that the Geminids are denser than meteors belonging to other showers, enabling them to get as low as 29 miles above Earth’s surface before burning up. Meteors belonging to other showers, like the Perseids, burn up much higher.

The Geminids can be seen by most of the world. Yet, it is best viewed by observers in the Northern Hemisphere. As you enter the Southern Hemisphere and move towards the South Pole, the altitude of the Geminid radiant—the celestial point in the sky where the Geminid meteors appear to originate—gets lower and lower above the horizon. Thus, observers in these locations see fewer Geminids than their northern counterparts.
 

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Sparks (NSF’s NOIRLab)/NASA

Image Date: Dec. 14, 2023

Release Date: Dec. 27, 2023

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