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[Music]

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what's up for december

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your early evening highlights a chance

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to catch a comet and the annual geminid

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meteors on december 6 through the 10th

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look westward following sunset for the

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moon visiting venus saturn and jupiter

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in turn the moon's crescent fills out as

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it appears higher in the sky each

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evening over the course of the week

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enjoy the view of dazzling venus as our

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evening star while it lasts though our

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cloud-covered neighbor planet will sink

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ever closer to the horizon during the

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month disappearing for most of us by new

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year's

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it'll reappear in late january as a

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morning planet preceding the sunrise and

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won't be back in evening skies until

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december of next year

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next in december there's a recently

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discovered comet on its way into the

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inner solar system that might be worth

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trying to observe it's known as comet

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leonard and it'll be at its closest to

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earth on december 12th just a couple of

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weeks before it reaches its closest

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distance from the sun

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now comets are notoriously difficult to

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predict in terms of brightness and

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visibility comet leonard is predicted to

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peak at a brightness that will probably

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require binoculars to spot it

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there's a chance it could be bright

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enough to see with the unaided eye but

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again with comets you really never know

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in the first couple of weeks of december

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comet leonard can be found in the east

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before sunrise passing between arcturus

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and the handle of the big dipper it

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approaches the horizon right around the

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time of its closest approach to earth

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meaning it'll likely be brighter but

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more challenging to observe it then

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switches over to being an evening object

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after around december 14th for just a

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little while after the sun sets as it

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begins its long haul outward from the

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sun again progressively fading in

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brightness

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finally the geminid meteors are a

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highlight of december skies each year

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this year's meteor shower peaks

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overnight on december 13th and 14th

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apart from the weather the phase of the

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moon is usually the main factor in

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whether a meteor shower will have good

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viewing any given year

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this year the moon will be almost 80

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percent full at the peak of the geminids

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which isn't ideal however that bright

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moon will set somewhere around 2am

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wherever you're located leaving a couple

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of hours for meteor watching before dawn

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the meteors appear to radiate from the

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constellation gemini which you'll find

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high in the west now while most annual

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meteor showers are caused by earth

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passing through trails of dust-sized

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particles of comet debris the geminids

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are one of the few meteor showers that

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are caused by debris from an asteroid

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that crosses earth's orbit in this case

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one called faithan

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recently nasa scientists shared findings

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that suggest the difference between an

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asteroid and a comet might be less clear

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than we realized with fizzing sodium on

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faithan playing the same role as

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vaporizing ice on comets and whether you

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catch a glimpse of comet leonard or

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meteors from asteroid faithan both are

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reminders of the deep connections

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between earth and the rest of the solar

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system that we discover because we look

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outward and we explore

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here are the phases of the moon for

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you can catch up on all of nasa's

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missions to explore the solar system and

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beyond at nasa.gov i'm preston dykes