USA: The Geminids meteor shower is one of the most spectacular and powerful meteor showers that takes place each year. The Geminid meteor shower comes from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, in contrast to most meteor showers, which are caused by comets. More information on the unusual beginning of the spectacular Geminid meteor shower has recently been made available by NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission.
One of the phenomena that astronomers eagerly anticipate is the Geminid meteor shower, which was first identified in 1983. Despite how well-known the meteor shower is, there still seems to be a lot about it that we might not be aware of, especially its origin. Scientists now have a better understanding as a result of the Parker mission.
Comets, which are made of ice and dust, are the source of the majority of meteor showers that we observe on Earth. The ice melts when a comet approaches the Sun because of the heat. It creates a trail of dust and debris in its wake as it moves. When the Earth travels through the debris that the comet has left in its orbit, meteor showers are created.
It's interesting to note that unlike comets, asteroids like 3200 Phaethon are not impacted by the Sun's heat. The thing that makes Phaethon so peculiar is that, despite the fact that we know it is an asteroid, it appears to engage in temperature-dependent activity as it approaches the Sun. According to Jamey Szalay, a research scholar at Princeton University, most asteroids don't behave that way.
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Scientists were able to get a better look at the dust particles that passing comets and asteroids had left behind by using the Parker probe. Three scenarios for the formation of the Geminid meteor shower were modelled by scientists using this data. To find out the unusual origin of the well-known meteor shower, these models were then compared to those already in use that were created using data collected from Earth-based observations.
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In the study, which was published in The Planetary Science Journal, it was suggested that a "sudden, powerful event" may have given rise to the Geminid meteor shower. It might be caused by the asteroid Phaethon slamming into another cosmic object at high speed, or it might even be the result of a gas explosion.