A meteor from the Geminid meteor shower, which occurs annually in December and appears to come from the direction of the constellation Gemini.
From Gemini (the constellation) plus the suffix -id (used for meteor shower names). The Geminid shower was discovered in the 1860s and named after its radiant point in the sky.
The Geminids are one of the most spectacular meteor showers we can see from Earth, and unlike most meteor showers caused by comets, they come from an asteroid (3200 Phaethon)—making them a cosmic puzzle scientists are still investigating! You can see dozens of them per hour during peak nights in December.
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