Geminid meteor shower Dec. 13-14, 2013: Peak time, live stream, NASA chat tonight

 Brocken Inaglory/Wikimedia Commons

The annual Geminid meteor shower peaking on the night of Dec. 13 and the early morning hours of Dec. 14. And stargazers will be able to see over 100 meteors per hour.

A live web chat will be hosted by NASA astronomer Bill Cooke, Daniell Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw on Dec. 13 from 11pm to 3am ET.

A live stream video of the meteor shower will also be available on the night of Dec. 13.

The Geminids is described as the most intense meteor shower of the year. The shooting fireballs will be visible from anywhere, but be sure to move away from city lights to get the best view.

Moonlight will also drown out some of the fireballs, but as the meteors will be peaking at 100-200 per hour, stargazers are sure to catch glimpses of the shooting stars.

The best time to see the Geminids peaking would be on the night of Dec. 13-14 at 1-2am local time.

While most meteor showers are from comets, the Geminids is from a rocky object called 3200 Phaethon.

"The Geminids are my favorite because they defy explanation," said Cooke. "Of all the debris streams Earth passes through every year, the Geminids are by far the most massive. When we add up the amount of dust in the Geminid stream, it outweighs other streams by factors of 5 to 500."

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