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Enjoying the Geminids From Above and Below -
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presented by Science@NASA.
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On the night of December 13, into the morning of December 14, 2018, tune into the night sky for a dazzling display of fireballs.
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Thanks to the International Space Station, this sky show, the Geminids meteor shower, will be viewed from both above and below.
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Sky watchers on the Earth will be sprawled flat on their backs,
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scanning the skies for fleeting streaks of light or “meteors” from small particles or “meteoroids” burning up as they plunge into the atmosphere.
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While most of those viewers won’t be pondering what the shooting stars are made of, astronomers and planetary scientists will be.
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The Meteor camera on the space station will provide clues.
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Meteor records HD video from inside the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF)
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looking through the highest optical-quality window ever installed on a human space vehicle.
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This camera helps scientists identify and monitor the activity of meteors,
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from bolides, extremely bright meteors that typically explode in the atmosphere, to much fainter ones not visible to the naked eye.
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The camera is equipped with a diffraction grating, an optical component that allows incoming light to be split into selected visible wavelengths of light
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that are signatures of various elements like Iron, Sodium, Calcium, and Magnesium.
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By measuring a spectrum or “chemical fingerprint” from the meteor, the presence of these elements is revealed.
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Meteor Science Principal Investigator Tomoko Arai of the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan says,
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“Our observations focus on annual meteor showers, such as Geminids and Perseids,
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because their meteoroids originated from known comets or asteroids, so-called meteor showers’ parent bodies.
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The spectral information will tell us the chemical makeup of meteoroids and of their parent bodies.
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This can help us understand their origin and evolution.”
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The instrument also helps improve estimates of how much material actually enters Earth’s atmosphere.
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Findings could help mission planners protect spacecraft and Earth from potential collisions with meteoroids.
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So what parent body spawns the debris that results in the dazzling Geminids?
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Many researchers hypothesize that they are related to a rocky asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, which passes closer to the sun than any other named asteroid.
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Phaethon may be a “rock-comet”— a dormant comet that has accumulated a thick mantle of interplanetary dust grains that can slough off as the comet nears the sun.
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Phaethon may be an asteroid that was once rich in ice and organics like comets,
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originally located in the main asteroid belt, which has become active as its orbit has evolved closer to the Sun.
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Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office offers another possible explanation for the Geminids source.
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“There is another object – Apollo asteroid 2005 UD – that seems to be dynamically related to Phaethon and has physical similarities.
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Some researchers believe that 2005 UD, 3200 Phaethon, and the massive amounts of debris that cause the Geminids are all products of a larger object that has broken apart.”
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Researchers continue to debate the cosmic drama underlying the Geminids.
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Meanwhile, Cooke gives this advice: “Best viewing is Friday morning around 2 AM your local time, after moonset.
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In the suburbs you could see around 40-50 meteors per hour.
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Under ideal conditions you could see about 100 meteors per hour!
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Darker is always better when viewing meteor showers.”
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For the full spectrum of science underway on the space station, go to www.nasa.gov/iss-science
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For more amazing views of our skies and beyond, visit science.nasa.gov.