Calling all avid stargazers: the biggest meteor shower of the year will be lighting up the sky on the night of Thursday, December 14 and the morning of Friday, December 15, with 150 meteors shooting above us when the meteor shower is at its peak. The Geminids meteor shower is one of the final celestial spectacles for the year and it's one worth seeing – if you can't get out to the Blue Mountains to watch it with an astronomer by your side, you're still likely to catch a pretty impressive spectacle.
While most meteor showers are the result of a comet, the Geminids come from debris shed by 3,200 Phaethon, a five-kilometre-wide asteroid that discards matter as it moves past Earth in space. It first appeared in the mid-1800s, but it wasn't considered particularly notable at the time, offering just ten to 20 meteors per hour at its peak. The Geminids have grown considerably in scale across the centuries, today offering upwards of 120 meteors per hour in perfect conditions. This particular starry display is considered one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers, according to NASA.
This year, the Geminids will be visible in Sydney from December 7 to 17, with a peak set to occur on the night of December 14 to the morning of December 15. The visibility of the meteors can vary based on moonlight and weather, but (pending cloud cover) we should be in luck this time around; the new moon this month means that the skies will be darker, making for what should be an excellent show. The show will peak at different times in different cities, with the highest density of meteors set to light up the sky above Sydney at around 2.55am on Friday, December 15.
For more advice on how to see the Geminids, head here.