Geminid Over Las Cruces
Hazy skies did little to dim the brightness of this Gemind meteor, which graced the skies over southern New Mexico on the night of Dec. 14 around 7:28 p.m. MST. Moving at 80,000 mph, the 3/4 inch meteor — a piece of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon — flared brighter than the planet Venus before burning up 47 miles above the U.S./Mexico border.
Image credit: Marshall Space Flight Center, Meteoroid Environments Office, Bill Cooke
