Written by Mahmoud Ragheb
Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 02:00 AM
Experts and amateur astronomers are gearing up to track and follow the rain Geminid meteorites Or Gemini, which lights up the sky with about 120 multi-colored meteors per hour. It will be a spectacular astronomical display on Wednesday night and will continue until dawn tomorrow, Thursday.
Dr Ashraf Tadroz, Professor of Astronomy at the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, said Geminid meteors are the queen of meteor showers and many people prefer them as they are considered the best and most beautiful meteor showers throughout the year. Conditions will be prepared to see one meteor every minute, especially since there is no moon that night, so visibility will be perfect for many meteors.
The moon will not be visible in the sky for the entire night of Wednesday, marking the beginning of the new moon birth. Where the Moon rises and sets completely with the Sun, its bright side faces the Sun and its dark side faces the Earth.
This night is generally considered the best night of the month, and is favored by astronomers for observing faint celestial bodies such as galaxies, constellations, and stars in distant galaxies.
The Geminid meteors fall annually from December 7th to December 17th, this year they peak between the night of December 13th and the dawn of December 14th, and are best viewed from a completely dark location away from city lights. Where the meteors fall seems to come from the constellation Gemini, hence the name, but they appear elsewhere in the sky.
The Geminid showers are caused by dusty debris left behind by asteroid Python 3200, discovered in 1982. Meteors are usually visible to the naked eye and do not require binoculars or astronomical telescopes, unless they are far from city lights and high in the sky. Absence of clouds, dust and water vapor.
As the Earth revolves around the Sun, it passes through the dense masses of dust and pebbles scattered in the orbits of comets and asteroids, which crash into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up at an altitude of 70 to 100 kilometers. And what appears to us as a streak of light leads to repeated meteor showers across the Earth on an annual basis.
He asserted that these meteors appear in the sky as they enter the atmosphere 70 kilometers above the earth’s surface and burn up in it, causing no harm to a person or his daily activities on earth. They are fun to watch and amateur astronomers and those interested in astronomy and space science like to follow and photograph them.
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