Israelis in a hot water spring on the shore of the Dead Sea near the Israeli Kibbutz of Ein Gedi watch the sky for Geminid meteor streaks above the Judean desert on December 14, 2012. Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images.
Nature put on a dazzling light show early Friday morning, and it's scheduled to deliver another tonight. The Geminid meteor shower, which occurs every December, is thought to result from debris spewing from an asteroid-like object called 3200 Phaethon.
From NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien and BoingBoing, here's a guide on how to watch it. "Find Sirius," he says. "Up and to the right will be Orion's Belt. Up a little higher to the left will be Gemini. The meteors will emanate from there (astronomers call this the radiant)."
In case you missed it, here's a look at what people have been snapping from their neighborhoods.
Geminid meteor over Polpis Harbor #Nantucket facebook.com/photo.php?pid=... Stunning image by @ackdoc twitter.com/JasonGraziadei...
— Jason Graziadei (@JasonGraziadei) December 14, 2012Awesome photo of a Geminid meteor last night taken in Windsor, NY. #shootingstars #geminid twitter.com/wx4cstr/status...
— Hunter Coleman (@wx4cstr) December 14, 2012Another nice photo MT @erniebarreto: Another #Geminid as seen from Centreville, VA twitter.com/ErnieBarreto/s...
— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) December 14, 2012And here's a map from AccuWeather showing who's got the best view.
Most meteor showers are caused by icy comets casting off jets and meteoroides when heated by sunlight, NASA says in this video below. But the Geminid Meteor shower, which appears to radiate from the constellation Gemini, is less understood.
QUICK BITES
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Jeremy Blackman, Patti Parson, David Pelcyger contributed to this report.