Geminid Meteors over Chile

Explanation: Are meteors streaming out from a point in the sky? Yes, in a way. When the Earth crosses a stream of Sun-orbiting meteors , these meteors appear to come from the direction of the stream -- with the directional point called the radiant . An example occurs every mid-December for the Geminids meteor shower , as apparent in the featured image . Recorded near the shower's peak in 2013, the featured sky scape captures Gemini's shooting stars in a four-hour composite from the dark skies of the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile . In the foreground the 2.5-meter du Pont Telescope is visible as well as the 1-meter SWOPE telescope . The skies beyond the meteors are highlighted by Jupiter , seen as the bright spot near the image center, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy , seen vertically on the image left, and the pinkish Orion Nebula on the far left. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon , Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second. The 2019 Geminid meteor shower peaks again this coming weekend .