Geminid Meteors Shower Expected on Sunday Night

On Sunday night and on early Monday morning, stargazers have an amazing opportunity to watch this year’s brightest meteor shower when Geminid meteor will be making its appearance in the dark sky.

Photo: Geminid Meteors Shower Expected on Sunday Night

According to NASA, it's "the best meteor shower of 2009". So if you have missed out on last month’s Leonid meteor shower, worry not; one more chance is in store for stargazers before the year ends.

Bill Cook reported from NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office that the sky will stay dark, and most of the meteor activity will take place somewhere around 12:10 a.m. EST.

The Geminid meteors appear during the time when the Northern Hemisphere is in the grip of bone-chilling cold weather, The Money Times reports.

According to San Francisco Chronicle, t he bright meteors are actually bits of debris from the rocky core of an extinct comet that appear to come from the constellation Gemini and flash brightly as they encounter the upper limits of the Earth's atmosphere.

The Geminid meteor showers have been growing stronger for the past 150 years, but astronomers cannot predict exactly which years will be the best for observing them.