Meteor shower sends shooting stars across space

December 14, 2012

Star-gazers who stayed up late and braved the cold Thursday night enjoyed quite a show.

Streaks of light overnight were from the annual Geminid meteor shower -- and an even more rare event, meteors carried along by the comet Wirtanen.

This is the first time the comet's debris field crossed the Earth's orbit, and NASA says it may have produced some of the meteors seen Thursday night.

Thursday night was the peak of the Geminid meteor shower, which happens every December and gets its name from the constellation Gemini.

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