MONTREAL – The Geminid meteor shower is expected to peak on Tuesday night when hundreds of shooting stars will glow through the December sky.
The meteor shower, which NASA calls the year’s best, appears to originate from the constellation Gemini and can be seen throughout the northern hemisphere.
It takes place each mid-December as the earth passes through the debris from an object called 3200 Phaetheon, which astronomers believe is either a meteor or an asteroid.
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On a night with a clear sky, between 80 and 120 bright blue Geminids can be seen streaking through space.
This year, however, sunlight reflecting from the moon is expected to diminish visibility of the meteors.
Still, star gazers could see as many as 40 Geminids an hour on Tuesday night.
The first noted occurrence of the shower happened in 1862 in Manchester, England.
Astronomers became aware of the meteor shower’s yearly occurrence in the 1870s.
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