2024 has been an incredible year for skygazers, featuring solar eclipses, planet parades and some of the most intense aurora borealis sightings seen in years. Tucked in there have been an array of meteor showers, including the big ones like Perseids and the triple meteor shower seen back in July. There's still a chance to catch Geminids, one of the biggest meteor showers of the year, along with a couple of others.
Three more meteor showers are set to start or peak during December. The biggest one is Geminids, which started in November and will peak Dec. 13 to 14. Ursids will start on Dec. 13 and run until Christmas Eve, Dec. 24. Finally, Quadrantids will start after Christmas and peak just after New Year's Day.
Since all three meteor showers back up into each other, skygazers have a chance to see meteors on any night through the end of the year and into 2025. It also helps that Geminids and Quadrantids are two of the biggest meteor showers of the year, thus increasing the odds of seeing a shooting star.
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How to view a meteor shower
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Meteor viewing requires a little bit of work. In general, when astronomers calculate the number of meteors that you see per hour, they assume you're far away from the big city, with no visible moon. Since the moon is almost always at least partially full, that means you likely won't see the maximum number of meteors per hour.
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Get outside where the sky is as dark as possible. Folks living in the big city may see a couple during the larger showers like Geminids and Quadrantids, but for the smaller showers, even people living in the suburbs may not see any. Once you're far away from the light pollution, all you have to do is look at the radiant -- the point from which the meteor showers originate -- and wait for the meteors to show up.
Geminids
A view of the Geminid meteor shower in Sichuan Province, China, in December 2020.
Costfoto/Future Publishing/Getty ImagesWhen is it happening: Nov. 19 to Dec. 24
Peak date: Dec. 13 to 14
Maximum meteor rate: 150 meteors per hour
Geminids is one of the biggest meteor showers of the year, and it started before Thanksgiving. It's generated from the 3200 Phaethon asteroid, which is unique because its orbit brings it closer to the sun than any other named asteroid. Geminids is, on average, even more intense than the popular Perseids meteor shower, spawning anywhere from two to three times as many meteors.
The radiant for Geminids is Gemini, which is under the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere for most of the night. The good news is that the meteor shower will be visible across the entire night sky during its peak, so you don't actually need to find the radiant for this one.
A meteor burns up in the sky over al-Abrak desert north of Kuwait City during the annual Geminid meteor shower early on Dec. 15, 2023.
Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty ImagesUrsids
When is it happening: Dec. 13 to 24
Peak date: Dec. 21 to 22
Maximum meteor rate: 10 meteors per hour
The Ursids meteor shower appears during the peak for Geminids and ends on the same day, making it difficult to determine if a meteor came from Geminids or Ursids. The only reason there's a differentiation is because the radiant is different and Ursids is fueled by the 8P/Tuttle comet. Overall, it's a smaller meteor shower that'll be overshadowed mostly by Geminids, but if you see a meteor in mid-December, it might be from Ursids.
Ursids radiates out from the Little Dipper, one of the most familiar constellations in the night sky and part of the Ursa Major constellation. It'll be way up in the northern skies when Ursids peaks, making it one of the easiest radiants to find in the night sky.
Quadrantids
The Quadrantids meteor shower is seen over Pigeon Point Light Station in Pescadero, California, on Jan. 4, 2024.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty ImagesWhen is it happening: Dec. 26 to Jan. 16
Peak date: Jan. 2 to 3
Maximum meteor rate: 120 meteors per hour
This meteor shower peaks after the new year but will start just after Christmas. It's one of the most active meteor showers during its peak, but its peak is measured in hours instead of days. It's supplied by the 2003 EH asteroid, which is classified as a near-Earth object by NASA as its orbit passes quite close to Earth. The Quadrantids is named for the Quadrans Muralis constellation, which actually stopped being officially recognized as a constellation as of 1922 due to overcrowding in star charts.
The best time to see Quadrantids will be the evening of Jan. 2 and the morning of Jan. 3. It can throw upward of over 100 meteors per hour, but it won't do so for very long. You'll want to look near the Big Dipper for this one, so very close to the same spot as Ursids.
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