Get ready to witness ‘green fireballs’ lighting up tonight’s skies

Before the year ends, skygazers will get the opportunity to witness the last and strongest meteor shower of the year peaking on December 13 and 14 and lighting up skies in form of ‘green fireballs’.

A meteor shower is set to put up a show of green fireballs and bright up the night skies tonight on December 13 and December 14, NASA notified.

The meteor shower is known as The Geminid meteor shower and causes a mesmerizing show every December. This time the most meteors will be visible across the globe, but more prominently in the Northern Hemisphere, peaking in hours before sunrise on Friday, December 14 at about 07:30am ET. However, some of them will also be visible after sunset on Thursday, December 13.

“Expect to see up to 120 meteors per hour from a dark sky location, but only after the first quarter moon sets around midnight your local time. From the Southern Hemisphere, observers should see fewer but still plenty of medium-speed meteors once Gemini rises above the horizon after midnight local time,” said NASA.

As per NASA, the shower is expected to hit about 100 meteors per hour around 02:00am. For people in the suburbs, the number of meteors will lessen to 30-40 meteors per hour. The meteors will leave behind trails of smoke that will appear to glow.

As per CNN, the meteor shower is because the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which is unusual since comets usually create meteor showers. However, since the asteroid has been likened to comets, it has been named as a ‘rock comet’.

Moreover, while looking up in the sky, gazers would also be able to see a foggy green patch, which will actually be the Comet 46P/Wirtanen that is making its closest approach to Earth for the next 20 years. What’s more interesting is that the comet will be visible to naked eye.