Geminids
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Geminids:
see meteor showermeteor shower,increase in the number of meteors observed in a particular part of the sky. The trails of the meteors of a meteor shower all appear to be traceable back to a single point in the sky, known as the radiant point, or radiant.
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Geminids
(jem -ă-nidz) An important and active winter meteor shower that maximizes on Dec. 13, meteors being visible between Dec. 7 and Dec. 15. The shower has a radiant of RA 113°, dec +32°, and a zenithal hourly rate of about 80; the meteoroids hit the atmosphere with a velocity of about 36 km s–1. The orbit of the meteoroid stream has a low semimajor axis (1.5 AU) and matches almost exactly the orbit of the Apollo asteroid Phaethon. The shower has yielded a fairly constant rate during the last century. The meteoroids have a higher density than normal because the parent of the shower is an asteroid rather than a comet.Geminids
a meteor shower with a radiant in the Gemini constellation. The shower is first observable in the first half of December and reaches its maximum on December 13-14. The most active of the annually occurring meteor showers, it has a very short period of revolution around the sun (1.7 years). The Geminids were first observed in 1862.
Geminids
[′jem·ə·nidz] (astronomy)
A meteor shower that reaches maximum about December 13.