Two bright celestial scenes will play out in the heavens tonight and Wednesday morning: a supermoon and a meteor shower.
While the supermoon of November was the subject of plenty of attention, the evening of December 14 will also host a supermoon, which is a phenomenon that occurs when the moon (which has an elliptical orbit) is closest to our planet at the same time it appears to be full from our vantage point here on Earth. The combination of the two factors makes it brighter— as much as 30 percent, NASA says.
An extra bright full moon makes for a powerful sight in the sky, but it’s going to outshine another phenomenon: the annual Geminid meteor shower, when the Earth passes through material from an “extinct comet” dubbed 3200 Phaethon, according to NASA. The meteors streak across the sky as they burn up, making for stunning shooting stars.
