Interstellar Comet's Close Approach, Geminid Meteors and more In December 2025 Skywatching

Space.com

Comet 3I/Atlas will make its closest approach to Earth in December. The Geminid meteor shower peaks this month. Also, see a conjunction of Jupiter and the moon.   Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Transcript

00:00The 3i Atlas Comet makes its closest approach to Earth.

00:04The Geminid meteor shower sparkles across the sky,

00:07and we spot a conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter.

00:11That's what's up for December!

00:14Comet 3i Atlas is making its closest approach to Earth on December 19th.

00:19This could be your best bet to see this interstellar interloper.

00:23Comet 3i Atlas is the third object in history from outside of our solar system

00:28to be discovered within our solar system.

00:31NASA continues to observe and study the object

00:34using a variety of spacecraft and telescopes

00:37so we can learn as much as we can about it while it's in our solar neighborhood.

00:41Comet 3i Atlas poses no threat to Earth and will remain very far away.

00:46On its closest approach to our planet on December 19th,

00:50it will still be about 170 million miles away,

00:54or more than 700 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

00:59Still, at this distance, sky watchers looking east to northeast in the early pre-dawn morning

01:04could catch the comet right under Regulus,

01:07a star at the heart of the constellation Leo the Lion.

01:11To see the comet before it leaves our vicinity,

01:13you'll need to be looking through a telescope with an aperture of at least 30 centimeters.

01:18Look for observatories and sky watching events in your local area.

01:23The Geminid meteor shower will sparkle across the skies this December,

01:28peaking on the evenings of December 13th and 14th.

01:31This meteor shower is known for being bright and colorful,

01:35and it's made up of debris trailing the asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

01:39To catch the Geminid's peak, look to the eastern sky all evening on December 13th and December 14th.

01:46The meteors will appear near the bright planet Jupiter.

01:50With the darkest possible skies, you could see up to 120 Geminid meteors per hour.

01:57On the evening of December 7th, the Moon will have a friend in the night sky

02:01as the Moon and Jupiter get close for a conjunction.

02:04During a conjunction, objects in the sky like planets and moons appear close together,

02:10even though they're actually far apart.

02:13For example, while the Moon and Jupiter will buddy up this month from our view,

02:17in space, they're actually hundreds of millions of miles apart.

02:22To see the pair together, look up to the Moon in the eastern sky on December 7th,

02:27and Jupiter will be just above and to the right.

02:31Here are the phases of the Moon for December.

02:34You can stay up to date on all of NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov.

02:41I'm Chelsea Goad from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that's what's up for this month.

02:47.

02:48.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended