Eclipsed: Supermoon vs The Geminids

The scene is set for a battle of the skies late on Tuesday when the annual dazzling display of Geminid meteors competes with an impressive supermoon to brighten up the December night.

The Geminid meteor shower is set to peak on the night of December 13 through to the morning of December 14, however this year the celestial show is set to be outshone by the final supermoon of the year.

The Geminids occur every December when Earth crosses the orbital part of the 3200 Phaethon asteroid. The debris from the asteroid burns up as it falls into the atmosphere creating the spectacular display of shooting stars.

These meteors are noteworthy as most meteor showers originate from comet debris, not asteroids. Observations of these fireballs are also relatively recent compared to the Perseids and Leonids meteors, with the first sighting not recorded until the 1860s.

The Geminids shower is one of the key events in stargazers’ calendars and is often considered the best such shower of the year, with typically 120 meteors of different colors lighting up the sky every hour.