NASA’s Parker probe has spotted the Geminid meteor showers’ source
SAN FRANCISCO — The Parker Solar Probe is no one-trick pony. Besides offering unprecedented close-ups of the sun, the spacecraft is giving new views of other parts of the solar system (SN: 12/4/19). The probe now has gotten the first-ever glimpse of the trail of space rubble responsible for the annual Geminid meteor shower. Future Parker observations of this debris could help solve the mystery of where the Geminids came from. Earth’s orbit cuts through the stream of Geminid space rocks every December. The resulting shower of falling stars is expected to peak this year on December 13 to December 14. Searches with ground-based observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope have never spotted the source of the Geminid meteors out in space. “All we’ve ever seen of the Geminids are the shooting stars in the sky,” says Karl Battams, a space scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Battams presented the work December 11 in news conference and December 9...