Origin of the Geminids

[Unitron48]

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission is providing new evidence that a violent, catastrophic event created the Geminids: https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe ... or-shower/.

"The Geminid stream seems to originate from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. Asteroids like Phaethon are not typically affected by the Sun’s heat the way comets are, leaving scientists to wonder what caused the formation of Phaethon’s stream across the night sky."

"Scientists used Parker data to model three possible formation scenarios...and found that violent models were most consistent with the Parker data. This means it was likely that a sudden, powerful event – such as a high-speed collision with another body or a gaseous explosion, among other possibilities – that created the Geminid stream."

Interesting...

Dave

[Graeme1858]

Interesting indeed!

Graeme

[Makuser]

Hi Dave. A very interesting article on the origin of the Geminids meteor shower. And it is not the only one with an asteroid source (instead of a comet) for the debris path that Earth flies through each year. Note that the asteroid creating the Geminids (in Gemini) is the asteroid 3200 Phaethon and the asteroid creating the Quadrantids (in Bootes) is the asteroid 2003 EH1. Here are some links with more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids
and
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids- ... /in-depth/
Ironically they occur within two weeks of each other. The Geminids meteor shower for 2023 runs from December 14-20 with a peak on December 14-15 and the Quadrantids meteor shower for 2023 runs from December 26 to January 16 with a peak on January 2-3. Thanks for finding and sharing this link with us on here Dave and keep looking up.