{"copyright":"David Cruz","date":"2025-12-18","explanation":"Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant, is the brightest celestial beacon at the center of th is composite night skyscape. The scene was constructed by selecting the 40 expos ures containing meteors from about 500 exposures made on the nights of December 13 and 14, near peak activity for this year's annual Geminid meteor shower. With each selected exposure registered in the night sky above Alentejo, Portugal, pl anet Earth, it does look like the meteors are streaming away from Jupiter. But t he apparent radiant of the Geminid meteors is actually closer to bright star Cas tor, in the shower's eponymous constellation Gemini. In this frame that's just a little above and left of the Solar System's most massive planet. Still, the par ent body of Geminid meteors is known to be rocky, near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaet hon. And the orbit of Phaethon itself is influenced by the gravitational attract ion exerted by massive Jupiter, in concert with planets of the inner Solar Syste m.","hdurl":"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/image\/2512\/GeminidsJupiterCruz.jpg ","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Jupiter and the Meteors f rom Gemini","url":"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/image\/2512\/GeminidsJupiterCr uz1024.jpg"}
