How to see the Geminid meteor shower

The Geminid meteor shower is one of the last of the year’s major showers, and can generally be relied on to put on a good display.

In 2024, the Geminid meteor shower will be active between 4-20 December and will peak on 14-15 December.

What is the Geminid meteor shower?

Meteors are pieces of debris which enter our planet’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 70 kilometres per second, vaporising and causing the streaks of light we call meteors.

The meteors of the Geminid meteor shower are very bright, moderately fast, and are unusual in being multi-coloured – mainly white, some yellow and a few green, red and blue. These colours are partly caused by the presence of traces of metals like sodium and calcium, the same effect that is used to make fireworks colourful.

The shower has been known to produce over 150 meteors per hour at its peak, although light pollution and other factors mean that in reality the actual number visible is far less

Geminid meteors appear to radiate from near the bright star Castor in the constellation of Gemini.

What sets the Geminids apart from other meteor showers is their origin: while most meteor showers originate from comets, Geminids are leftover bits and pieces of the asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon. Unlike comets, asteroids don’t develop tails when approaching the Sun, and their composition is different.

However, scientists are still debating if Phaethon is even an asteroid – although it is built like one, it doesn’t move like one. Its orbit is highly elliptical, like a comet, which is why some scientists debate if Phaethon could be a completely new class of celestial objects: a rock comet.