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                      Geminid Meteor Shower Starts Tonight

   by VOA News

   Star gazers are in for a treat for the next few nights as the Geminid
   meteor shower begins Dec. 12.
   The shower, which [1]NASA calls the most intense of the year, will peak
   December 13-14 and last through the 16th.
   The astronomical light show can be seen from nearly every point on
   Earth, NASA says, and the best time to see it is around 1-2 a.m. local
   time anywhere in the world.
   NASA says the 2013 peak rate is between 100-120 meteors per hour.
   Most meteor showers come from comets, which spew ample meteoroids for a
   night of "shooting stars." The Geminid meteor shower is different. The
   parent is not a comet, but a weird rocky object named 3200 Phaethon
   that sheds very little dusty debris -- not nearly enough to explain the
   Geminids.
   "The Geminids are my favorite because they defy explanation," said Bill
   Cooke, lead for NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "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 five to 500."
   Here's a collection of videos from previous Geminid showers:

   IFRAME:
   [2]//www.youtube.com/embed/vYkTcXtuOxk?list=PLBEXDPatoWBkQ3nw19vJz7qLXi
   SVzcfF5
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   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/geminid-meteor-shower-starts-tonight/
   1809209.html

References

   1. http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/geminids_2013.html#.UqoEfo3oU7B
   2. file://www.youtube.com/embed/vYkTcXtuOxk?list=PLBEXDPatoWBkQ3nw19vJz7qLXiSVzcfF5
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/geminid-meteor-shower-starts-tonight/1809209.html