Geminid meteors may be 10 times older than thought, simulations of oddball asteroid Phaethon suggest

Unlike other meteor showers that originate from comets, the Geminids are the product of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, seen here in an artist’s illustration.The rocks making up the Geminid meteor shower that occurs towards the end of every year may have been born through a chaotic event 18,000 years ago, a new study suggests — potentially making the meteoroids about 10 times older than previously estimated.that swings along a watermelon-shaped orbit to come within just 0.

For years, astronomers believed the tail was composed of rock fragments that form the dust cloud that in turn generates the Geminids. Recent observations, however, contradict this, indicating that the tail's present-day particles are a thousand times smaller than the Geminids' bead-size rocks and may even be, not dust. Therefore, the cloud of rock responsible for the Geminid meteors must have formed sometime in the past.

The simulations revealed that a super-spinning Phaethon could have produced the Geminids. For one, their results suggested that the meteors' total mass would average 10 million tons — which is consistent with predictions made using NASA'sIn these models, Phaethon's mass-shedding occurred 18,000 years ago, leading the researchers to conclude this was when the particles responsible for the Geminids were likely cast into space.

Deepa Jain is a freelance science writer from Bengaluru, India. Her educational background consists of a master's degree in biology from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and an almost-completed bachelor's degree in archaeology from the University of Leicester, UK. She enjoys writing about astronomy, the natural world and archaeology.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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