Write-up on Gemenids Meteor Shower.

Original Post by Helen Avery

  

 The Geminids meteor shower is caused by an asteroid called 32 hundred Phaethon, and Phaethon has a legend all of his own — the most detailed of which was written by the Roman poet Ovid, in the epic Metamorphoses, in 8 AD.

 The beautiful, but tragic, story goes that Phaethon’s mother reveals to him that he is, in fact, the son of Phoebus — the God of the Sun — and disbelieving the story, Phaethon goes to Phoebus to ask him if it’s true. Phoebus tells his son that he is correct, and in order to prove his divine lineage he will grant Phaethon any wish he desires…

 Now Phoebus is the God of the Sun and to the Romans, the sun was a blazing chariot  that was pulled across the sky by horses, and guided and driven by Phoebus… So what do you think Phaethon wished for? To drive the chariot for one day.

 Despite knowing this is a terrible idea because the chariot requires incredible skill and stamina to control, Phoebus stands by his promise, and reluctantly gives his son strict instructions on how to drive the chariot, telling him never to drop the reins… 

 But as soon as Phaethon sets off, the horses, sensing a different reins-man, begin to run wild, and Phaethon is his panic lets go of the reins… What happens next according to Ovid is both beautiful and tragic. The horses zoom up into sky, around the heavens, swooshing past the Moon who can’t believe what she’s seeing, before flying down so close to Earth that meadows are consumed and scorched, cities go up in flames, and nations are reduced to ashes. The whole of Earth is on fire.

Unable to stand the heat any longer, the Earth pleads with Jupiter to intervene. And Jupiter launches a lightning bolt at the charioteer, Phaethon, killing him in an instant, and bringing an end to the destruction.  And as the body of Phaethon is hurled from the chariot, it hurtles headfirst through the air leaving a trail of sparks behind it that appear to fall down to Earth like stars — or indeed the Geminids…

Meteor Showers

A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky (a "shooting star" or a "falling star") produced by the entry of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere. If you have a dark clear sky you will probably see a few per hour on an average night. During one of the annual meteor showers you may see as many as 100/hour. Very bright meteors are known as fireballs - if you see one please report it.

Meteor showers are formed usually by the dust particle or debris left by comets.

When comets come closer to the Sun, the particles evaporate forming the famous tails we love to observe. Such particles get left behind to form the meteor showers.

As illustrated in above picture, the Preseids Meteor shower origins from Comet Swift Tuttle and we see the meteor shower radiant from Constellation Preseus, Hence the name.

One might get frustrated trying to experience a meteor shower as it is not similar to raindrops falling. Usually, a very good meteor shower would produce around 120 meteors per hour. i.e. around 2 per second. However, the meteors, though originating from a precise location, could appear anywhere in the sky as the location it enters the atmosphere and the size of the particle would be the deciding factor of whether we would be able to observe it. Usually, Meteor showers are best visible during very dark time of the night and with less light pollution - a full moon is a big negative factor to observe a meteor shower.

There are many meteor showers that occur during a calendar year and some of the famous ones happen in January, August and December. Some are listed below

January - Quadrantid Meteor Shower - Usually peaks around January 2nd

April - Lyrid Meteor Shower - Usually peaks around 22nd April

August - Preseids Meteor Shower - Peaks around 12th August

October - Orionoids Meteor Shower - Leftovers from Comet Halley - peaks around 21st October

December - Geminid Meteor Shower - One of the Brighter showers - usually peaks around 13th December

Below is a meteor that was caught on tape on 2nd June 2018 - suspected Daytime Arietids Meteor Shower !!

There are many more meteor showers that happen during a year and all are communicated to the alert application for the benefit of Sri Lankan public.