The final meteor shower of 2012 is expected to peak Thursday night.
The Geminid meteor shower is set to peak overnight on Thursday heading into Friday morning and NASA will be providing live streaming of the event from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama (see below).
NASA's live streaming event will also feature a question and answer session with Meteoroid Environment Office head Dr. Bill Cooke, Space Environments group member Danielle Moser, and fellow Meteoroid Environment Office member Rhiannon Blaauw.
The Geminid meteors stem from the three-mile wide asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon. The asteroid has since been categorized as an extinct comet.
"Basically it is the rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun," according to NASA. "Earth runs into a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini."
The night of Dec. 13 will also make the meteor shower far more memorable due to the new moon phase. The skies will be darker during the new moon therefore providing easier visibility of the Geminids.
According to RedOrbit, up to 120 meteors might be seen per hour, that's estimated to be roughly two meteors per minute.
The peak time is set for 2 a.m. local time, but some meteors are expected to appear as early as 10 p.m. local time.
Gemind's meteor shower comes after August's Persieds and October's Orionid's meteor showers.
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