New Meteor Shower to Give the Geminids a Run for Their Money

People are already gearing up to watch this year's Geminids, yet NASA researchers claim that, all things considered, it is quite likely that this show will come with a “side” of a never-before-seen meteor shower, all thanks to the comet Wirtanen.

This particular comet goes around the sun roughly every 5.4 years, and was first discovered back in 1948, Space reports.

However, this will be the first time when the Earth's atmosphere is to come face to face with the debris the Wirtanen leaves behind it as it travels through the sky.

Specialists plan on naming this new meteor shower the Piscids, seeing how its point of origin will appear to be the constellation Pisces.

Bill Cooke, a researcher working with NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, made a case of how, “Dust from this comet hitting Earth's atmosphere could produce as many as 30 meteors per hour.”

“Meteors from the new shower (if any) will be visible in the early evening, with the Geminids making their appearance later on and lasting until dawn,” he went on to add.