Stargazers are getting ready to witness one of the “most active and reliable meteor showers” of the year light up the skies this week.
The Geminid meteor shower is expected to peak on Thursday but could be visible starting Wednesday night.
The annual spectacle brings a flurry of so-called “shooting stars” streaking through the skies, delivering a meteor as often as one per minute.
Each year, there are six major meteor showers, but the Geminids is considered to be “one of the best and most reliable,” according to NASA.
“Even if you only see one or two meteors, it’s probably something you’ve never seen in your life before, so it’s one of those things that you can check off your bucket list,” John Percy, professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Toronto, said in an interview with Global News.
But if the sky is perfectly clear and you’re away from city lights, you could end up seeing “100 or more meteors” per hour, he said. “That’s pretty spectacular.”
The Geminid meteor shower comes from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon and the constellation Gemini is its radiant, or point of origin.
Photo taken on Dec. 13, 2021 shows the star trails at the Yulong Snow Mountain in Lijiang City, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. (Image achieved by stacking multiple exposures).
A meteor shower occurs when many meteoroids or space rocks coming from comets and asteroids collide with the Earth’s atmosphere all at once.
When these particles get close to the Sun, they get extremely hot and leave a dusty trail of debris.
So each year as the Earth orbits around the Sun, it also passes through the debris, which quickly burns up when it strikes the upper atmosphere, releasing a glowing streak of hot air.
It takes about one second for a meteor to zip through the sky and convert its energy of motion into the glow of air molecules, Percy said.
“They create a streak in the sky that lasts for maybe a second or two,” he said.
That might give it the illusion of a “shooting star,” but Percy said in reality this has “absolutely nothing” to do with stars and what you’re looking at is basically space dust coming through the atmosphere.
What will the Geminid meteor shower look like?
The Geminid meteors are bright, fast and typically yellow in colour, according to NASA.
At its peak, 120 meteors can be seen in one hour, the space agency says on its website.
They travel at the lightning-fast speed of 127,000 kilometres per hour.
“Because the nights are twice as long as they are in the summer, you do potentially have the opportunity of seeing many more meteors,” Percy said.
“Another good thing about this year is that the moon is very close to being new, so it’s not going to provide a huge amount of light in the background sky like it might if it was a full moon.”
A shooting star can be seen during the Geminid meteor stream in the starry sky above the Kochelsee and the summit of the Herzogstand early Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.
Matthias Balk/dpa via AP
How can you watch it in Canada?
There is no need for a telescope or pair of binoculars to get a glimpse of the Geminid meteor shower.
All you need to do is grab a warm blanket and maybe a sleeping bag, lie down outside and look up at the sky.
The best time to catch it is at night and before dawn.
Depending on where you are, the shower usually starts around 9 or 10 p.m., NASA says.
A Geminid meteor shower streaks across the night sky on the early morning of Dec. 12, 2021, in Bazhou, Xinjiang province, China.
Xue Bing / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Because it gets so dark so early in Canada, you might even see one as early as 6 p.m., Percy said.
“Generally, it’s better after midnight because then the Earth is pointing in the right direction in space (and) also, the lights tend to be a bit lower after midnight,” he said.
To get a good view, Percy advised finding an area well away from the city lights or if you can’t drive out to the country, then a safe local park is another option.
The clearer and darker the sky the better the spectacle.
To avoid hurting your night vision, try not to look at your cellphone or other lights during the meteor shower, says an article in The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which tracks lunar events.
“It’s always a good idea if you’re going to do some serious stargazing to let your eyes acclimatize outside to the dark for 15 or 20 minutes, and then your vision for fainter objects does improve significantly,” Percy said.
While the peak of the Geminid meteor shower only lasts a couple of days, the total duration is much longer.
This year’s Geminid meteor shower began on Nov. 19 and is expected to remain active till Dec. 24.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
