Meteor shower tonight worth staying up for

The earth is passing through debris left behind by an Asteroid this weekend, called Phaethon and it should show up in our night’s sky as a terrific light show, well worth staying up for according to Astronomers.  The event is called Geminids meteor shower and this weekend’s activity is so large that is is meant to be visible in both hemispheres as shooting stars that could be as frequent as one per minute.

The peak of the shower is meant to be Sunday night, and for those positioned throughout Australia, the stars should be visible strongly from about 9pm.  Brisbane and the northern regions of the country should see them first, with lower cities like Melbourne expected to see them after 11.00pm.  The key is to try and see them before a bright moon rises driwning out the lights at about 1am experts say.

Dr Tanya Hill said in an article by the ABC, that the meteor shower will be much longer-lasting than regular shooting stars.

“For most meteor showers we plough through dust debris that’s left over from comet, whereas in this case, being an asteroid, the debris is a bit more denser, and so the difference you’ll see in the night sky is that from a lot of these meteors,” she said.

“They’re more long-lasting and so you’ll see a much longer flash through the night sky.”

image source: ABC