The Geminid meteor shower is set to light up the sky Friday night and into Saturday morning, shinging brightly despite a nearly full moon.
Named after the constellation Gemini, the shower is one of the year's best and most reliable, with meteor estimates as high as 120 per hour this year.
The Geminids originate from the comet 3200 Phaethon and race across the sky at some 22 miles per second. A rocky shadow of its former self, Phaethon is classified as extinct - its many close encounters with the Sun having stripped away its ice over the years. The Earth still gets a whiff of what remains every mid-December, however, when it passes through a stream of its debris.
"The Geminid meteor shower is the most intense meteor shower of the year," NASA's Bill Cooke said in a statement. "It is rich in fireballs and can be seen from almost any point on Earth. Even a bright moon won't completely spoil the show."
When the shower debuted in the early 19th century not long before the US Civil War broke out, it did so in a much weaker state, with no indication it would grow to become one of astronomers' favorites.
Jupiter can be thanked for the shift, the head of the agency's Meteoroid Environment Office told reporters. "This is because Jupiter's gravity is tugging that string of debris that comprises the Geminids closer to Earth as time goes along," Cooke explained, according Space.com. For this same reason, Cooke said Geminid rates could overtake 200 meteors per hour in coming years.
Although the shower's meteors will appear as though they are emanating from Gemini, Cooke warned against focusing on that area of the sky.
"The best thing to do to observe meteors is to lie flat on your back and look straight up," he said.
Cooke will join other NASA scientists starting Friday at 11:00 p.m. EST in a live, public chat about the Geminids. Meanwhile, Slooh will be providing a free live feed of the shower here.