One of the most dazzling meteor showers of the year will light up the skies over the next few weeks of December.
As it falls fast and hard, it hits the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 260.000 kilometers per hour.
You don't need a telescope or even binoculars to admire a meteor shower, and the "queen" of them all will put on a display that can be seen from anywhere on Earth.
It is one of the "best and most reliable meteor showers," according to NASA, the US agency responsible for the civilian part of the space program.
It differs from other meteor showers in color, which makes it one of the most beautiful.
On a dark night with clear skies, you can watch up to 120 meteors per hour falling from the sky.
They will slow down to 130.000 kilometers per hour, but that only makes them better to watch.
How do we watch the Geminids?
They will be visible from December 4th to 20th, but peak around midnight (local time) on Sunday, December 14th.
On that date, it will be most visible in Serbia, confirmed the Astronomical Observatory in Belgrade.
They are visible in both the northern and southern hemispheres, but are more pronounced in the former.
The Geminids are named after the constellation Gemini, because that is the point in the sky from which they appear to emerge.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock, scientist and BBC presenter The sky at night, she explained that the best way to see meteors is to just look at the sky.
"So if you find Orion, look a little to the left and you should see the constellation Gemini, and that's where these shooting stars will be coming from," he adds.
No special equipment will be required and they may be easier to spot with the naked eye.
It's also a good idea to go to a dark, open space, as light pollution in cities can impair your vision.
Give your eyes enough time to adjust to the dark and don't look at your phone.
Minje Kim, a researcher in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Warwick in the UK, suggested downloading a stargazing app.
"This meteor shower is just a beautiful event in the night sky where many shooting stars appear to come from the same area in the sky."
"If you find the constellation Gemini first, you'll see the meteor shower easily," he adds.
Interesting facts
The Geminids are the only major meteor shower that does not originate from a comet.
The beautiful streaks we see in the night sky may actually be caused by particles as small as grains of sand.
The Geminids were first observed in 1862 - more recent than other meteor showers like the Perseids and Leonids.
This meteor shower is believed to be getting more intense every year.
Source: Royal Museum in Greenwich
Meteor, meteorite, meteoroid, asteroid, comet - what's the difference?
A meteor is formed when a space rock vaporizes after hitting the Earth's atmosphere.
The objects themselves are meteoroids - pieces of rock or ice that have fallen from an asteroid or comet.
If they survive and reach the ground, they become known as meteorites.
Asteroids are large pieces of rock that float through space and orbit the Sun.
Comets also float through space orbiting the Sun - but they are made of ice and dust, not rock.
How often do meteoroids hit Earth?
Every day, 100 to 300 tons of space dust and objects no larger than grains of sand fall to Earth, according to NASA.
About 44 tons of this meteorite material actually lands on the planet.
About once a year, an asteroid the size of a car hits Earth's atmosphere and creates an impressive fireball.
But it burns up before it reaches the surface.
Approximately every 2.000 years, a meteoroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage to the area.
What is a meteor shower?
A meteor shower occurs when the number of meteors increases dramatically.
They occur annually or at regular intervals each time the Earth passes through a space debris trail.
The Perseids are the most famous meteor shower, which peaks in August each year.
Each Perseid meteor is a tiny part of Comet Swift-Tuttle.
The famous Halley's Comet is responsible for both the Eta Aquarids and the Orionids.
The Geminids appear in mid-December, when our planet, traveling along its orbital path, passes over a stream of celestial debris thrown up by a rocky asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
As 3200 Phaethon orbits the Sun, the heat causes surface material to break down, before it tumbles into space, leaving behind a trail of small space rocks, ranging in size from grains of sand to peas.
The Earth passes through this trail every year and we see the glow as the rock burns up in the Earth's atmosphere.
So, they look a bit like a cloud of shooting stars.
"Shooting stars actually have nothing to do with stars," says Aderin-Pocock.
"It's just these little pieces that kind of burn," he adds.
Most meteors break away from comets, which are dirty "snowballs" made mostly of ice, but the Geminids are different.
Since this meteor shower is caused by an asteroid, not a comet, it makes it "quite spectacular because asteroids are rocky," while comets are icy, says Aderin-Pocock.
"A lot of these shooting stars will be colored because of the difference in elements within the particles," she adds.
Meteors are very bright and mostly white, but they can also appear yellow, green, red and blue.
These colors are partly caused by the presence of small amounts of metals such as sodium and calcium - the same elements that give fireworks their different colors.
What are the chances of being hit by a meteoroid?
Meteoroids are usually small, ranging in size from dust particles to the size of a rock, which helps them burn up quickly in our atmosphere, NASA says.
But they fell to Earth and hurt people, it says in Minternational quarterly journal of comets, which tracks meteorites.
In 1994, in Getafe, Spain, a meteorite pierced the windshield of a moving BMW, and the driver only broke a finger.
In 1992, a meteor shower fell on a densely populated area in and around the city of Mbale, Uganda, and a boy was hit in the head by a 3,6-gram fragment.
He was reportedly slowed down by banana leaves before being hit.
In Alabama, in 2954, a meteorite the size of a grapefruit pierced the roof, bounced off a radio set, and struck Ann Hodges as she sat in the living room, giving her a large bruise.
In Russia, space rocks have exploded in mid-air twice and caused damage.
In February 2013, a super-bright fireball exploded over the Urals, releasing meteorites.
Almost 1.500 people were injured then - most of them when windows were broken.
In 1908, in Tunguska, Siberia, a rock that entered the Earth's atmosphere exploded in the sky and destroyed 2.000 square kilometers of forest.
Two men and hundreds of reindeer were killed.
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- Orionid Meteor Shower: When and How to See It
- How to watch the Perseids - the 'meteor shower of the year'
- Meteor shower: What it is and how it forms
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