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This week, the skywatchers will experience a flashy double feature: The Geminid meteor shower — one of the year's best — will coincide with an unusually close encounter by an asteroid.

, discovered by a NASA satellite in 1983. With a diameter of about 3 miles, it's the third-largest near-Earth asteroid classified by the space agency as "potentially hazardous."
On Saturday, Phaethon will come within 0.069 astronomical units — about 6.4 million miles — of Earth. That is when NASA plans to take detailed radar images of the asteroid at its 

Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex

NASA says this encounter with Phaethon is the Earth's closest since 1974, and the closest it will be until 2093.

And that flyby means good gazing for amateur astronomers, too.

that Phaethon will be so bright that asteroid buffs can track it through a 3-inch telescope. "This thing will be scooting along at up 15 [degrees] per day or 38″ a minute ... fast enough to cross the field of view like a slow-moving satellite."


Meanwhile on the meteor shower front, the Geminids are known for the brightness of the individual meteors and their frequency: as many as 120 per hour, according to Space.com.


Most meteor showers occur as Earth passes through the debris trail and orbit of a comet. But December's 

, because Earth is passing through the debris of an asteroid: Phaethon.
The Geminid shower was first noted in 1862, 

. And the show has only gotten better since then, as Jupiter's gravity has pulled the particles closer to Earth.
While wee hours of the morning are generally the best time to watch for meteors, 

the Geminids offer "an evening matinee":


King adds an important note about that 120-meteors-per-hour rate:


This year's arrival of the Geminids and Phaethon is especially welcome because last year, a "supermoon" 

The Geminids shower will peak Wednesday night and Thursday morning. How to best observe the historic show?

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Geminids meteor shower was first recorded in 1933. According to NASA, the first notation of the shower was in 1862. In addition, Geminids was misspelled Gemenids in the headline and story.

Lifestyle

This week, the skywatchers will experience a flashy double feature: The Geminid meteor shower -- one of the year's best -- will coincide with an unusually close encounter by an asteroid.

An asteroid gets its close-up as Geminids light up the sky

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