"Geminid" Meteor Shower to Light Up Qatar's Night Sky on Wednesday

On Wednesday night, as the Earth passes through a cloud of cometary dust, night sky observers can anticipate a celestial show of shooting stars.

The Geminid meteor shower, one of the notable and significant meteor showers for experts and astronomy enthusiasts, was announced by the Qatar Calendar House as being on schedule for viewing and tracking by residents of the northern hemisphere, including those of Qatar.

Dr. Bashir Marzouk, an astronomer at Qatar Calendar House, predicted that the Geminid meteor shower will peak on Wednesday evening, December 20, and continue through sunrise on Thursday, December 15. He also noted that while the meteor shower typically activates between December 7 and December 17, it reaches its peak on December 14 every year.

According to Dr. Bashir Marzouk, the Geminids meteor shower is unique in that it can be observed anywhere free from environmental and light pollution. As a result, residents of the State of Qatar will be able to watch and observe the Geminids meteor shower without the use of any astronomical instruments or telescopes and can do so with just the naked eye.

He continued by saying that contemporary digital cameras may be used to take pictures of the Geminid meteor shower while accounting for the increased exposure time required to produce distinct photographs of the meteor.

Although it would be more difficult to see them due to the moon's brightness, up to 150 meteors per hour are anticipated to be visible.

The Geminids were discovered in 1862 and come from the stony asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which has a comet-like orbit.

The meteors, which are tiny fragments of extraterrestrial debris, seem to radiate from an area close to the prominent star Castor in the constellation Gemini.

The oncoming debris is heated by friction with the upper atmosphere, which causes the air surrounding them to shine brightly.

As a result, light streaks appear that are also referred to as shooting stars.

The Geminids are interesting because they can be multicolored, mostly white with some yellow and a little bit of green, red, and blue.

According to researchers at the Royal Observatory in the UK, some of these colors are brought on by the presence of traces of metals like sodium and calcium, which has a similar impact on how pyrotechnics are colored.