Geminid meteor shower peaks December 14

双子座流星雨今夜大爆发

While the Gemini meteor shower is scheduled to happen between December 12th and the 16th, tonight the cosmic event will peak allowing viewers to watch shooting stars throughout the night sky.

双子座流星雨的预计出现时间为12月13日至16日，今夜这一宇宙盛事将迎来大爆发，观测者们今夜可以大饱眼福，看到流星陨落的美景。

Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office said, “Observers with clear skies could see as many as 40 Geminids per hour. Our all-sky network of meteor cameras has captured several early Geminid fireballs. They were so bright, we could see them despite the moonlight.”

来自NASA流星体环境研究所的Bill Cooke表示：“如果天气晴好，观测者每小时能看到40颗双子座流星。我们的全天候流星照相机捕捉到一些早到的双子座流星，它们非常明亮，就算是在月光下也可以看清。”

People who want to see it should look up between 9pm and sunrise tomorrow morning. The Gemini meteor shower is an annual event that happens when “earth runs through a trail of dusty debris that litters the orbit of 3200 Phaethon.” Although, this meteor shower and the reason behind it remains a bit of an enigma. NASA reports, “Comets vaporizing in hot sunlight naturally produce such debris trails, but rocky asteroids like 3200 Phaethon do not. At least they’re not supposed to. The incongruity has baffled researchers since 1983 when 3200 Phaethon was discovered by NASA’s IRAS satellite.”

等待双子座流星雨的观测者可以从今晚的9点到明天凌晨持续关注。双子座流星雨是每年都会出现的三大流星雨之一（另外分别是象限仪座流星雨和英仙座流星雨）。当地球遇到小行星3200法厄同的星尘“尾巴”时，就形成了双子座流星雨（双子座也是母体非彗星的流星雨）。不过双子座形成的原因至今还有一些谜团未解开。根据美国宇航局NASA的报道：“彗星在炽热的太阳光线的照射下会自然蒸发出一些星尘轨迹，但如3200法厄同这样的岩石小行星却不会，所以情况本不该如此。自1983年这种IRAS卫星发现3200法厄同行星以来，这种不协调的现象让科学家们大惑不解。"

It’s a good thing the science doesn’t have to totally make sense to appreciate the beauty in the sky tonight. So, have a cup of coffee with dinner, and stretch your neck for some perfect star gazing tonight.

科学无法解释这种美景也许是件好事，就让我们今晚在夜空中静静欣赏吧。所以就在今夜，泡杯咖啡，伸长脖子，凝望夜空中的完美流星表演吧。