Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Dozens of shooting stars on Monday – NU.nl

According to Marc van der Sluys of the Department of Astronomy of the Radboud University Nijmegen are in clear weather with the naked eye to see some sixty to seventy shooting stars per hour.

Under favorable circumstances would that more than a hundred have been, Van der Sluys states on its website hemel.waarnemen.com.

The falling stars, which have nothing to do with real stars, but actually meteors belong to the meteor shower Geminids. Every year the earth in December by the path of the (extinct) comet Phaeton. Pieces of debris and dust left behind by the comet, causing flashes of light.



Gemini

The Geminids are named after the constellation Gemini (Gemini), where the meteors to come from corpses. This constellation is our morning above the western evening above the eastern horizon. The Geminids are yellowish color and leave traces short.

Since the peak of the Geminids-swarm Monday takes place around 16.00 pm, the flashes of light during the day not to see. According to Van der Sluys during mornings and evenings even fainter meteors are seen in dark places

By:. ANP

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