![\"Geminid](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765876996_903_0x0.jpg\")
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Geminid meteor shower streaks across the night sky on December 13, 2025 in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by VCG\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
VCG via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the year\u2019s most prolific and colorful, has wowed skywatchers across the world. <\/p>\n
Best seen in the Northern Hemisphere overnight on Dec. 13-14, the Geminids produced dozens of \u201cshooting stars\u201d per hour during their peak hours. <\/p>\n
Rated as the strongest such shower of the year, the Geminids can see as many as 150 meteors each hour. <\/p>\n
A \u201cshooting star\u201d is actually just dust and small rocks. Typically, comets melt slightly as they get close to the sun, leaving debris in the inner solar system that they orbit as a stream of material. <\/p>\n
Geminid meteor shower streaks across the constellation Orion on Dec. 14, 2025 in Dezhou, Shandong Province of China. (Photo by VCG\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
VCG via Getty Images<\/p>\n
When Earth moves through a meteor stream, tiny meteoroids \u2014 particles as small as a grain of sand \u2014 slam into the atmosphere. As they do so, they burn up, gaining energy. They release that energy as photons of light, becoming visible in the night sky for a split second.<\/p>\n
The Geminids are an exception, caused by material coming off an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, which takes 1.4 years to orbit the sun. The Geminid meteor shower is thought to result from an explosion or a high-speed collision between two objects, according to researchers<\/a>. <\/p>\n A view shows the Geminids meteor shower streaking across the night sky as stargazers gather at the Valley View of Yosemite National Park in California, United States, on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n