The
heavens
above
A n yo n e w h o d o e s n o t g a z e u p a n d s e e t h e w o n d e r o f a
d a r k n i g h t s k y f i l l e d w i t h c o u n t l e s s s ta r s l o s e s a s e n s e
o f t h e i r f u n d a m e n ta l c o n n e c t e d n e s s t o t h e u n i v e r s e . . .
T
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he night sky is a window to the universe. A dark or showers of comet origin since rocky bodies tend
starry night is a perfect opportunity to steal a to burn for a longer duration as they fall across the
glimpse of the world beyond our little planet earth’s atmosphere, unlike their icier counterparts.
Earth.
This meteor shower is named so since it appears to
be radiating from the bright star ‘Castor’, which is a
But unfortunately, courtesy of the growing pollu- part of the ‘Gemini’ constellation, popularly known as
tion and smog in our so-called advanced civilizations, ‘The Twins’. However, the radiating point and Castor
we have been deprived of this majestic window to appear to be a chance alignment, as Castor lies about
the outer space. Surprisingly, the Himalayan valley 52 light years away while these meteors burn up in
was benevolent enough! Our batch had the privilege the upper atmosphere, some 100 kilometers above
to witness one of the brightest and the most nu- the earth’s surface.
merous meteor showers of the year, ‘The Geminids
Meteor Shower’.
The night of December 13 was tailor-made to a
stargazer’s delight. Luck was in our favor that night, I
The Geminids Meteor Shower occurs when the guess. A clear cloudless sky… with the moon set al-
Earth passes through a stream of rocky fragments ready…giving us the perfect view of the skies above
from the 3200 Phaethon Asteroid, due to intense us…full of stars and many more surprises for us...
thermal fracturing as it swings close to the sun. This is
the reason why it is brighter than many other mete-
We could see ‘Cassiopeia’, ‘Orion’, ‘Sirius’-The