Google Doodle follows the Geminid meteor shower on Earth

Google Doodle took us on a trip on Thursday to show how the Geminid meteor shower traveled to Earth.

The slide show Doodle reveals how the 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid that may have died out of a comet, breaks when the orbit brings it close to the sun and creates a trail of debris. The asteroid was named after the Greek god Apollo's son.

It's a meteor shower Geminid, named because meteors come from the glowing in the constellation Gemini. The first recorded observation was from river navigation on the Mississippi River in 1833 and every year it became more intense.

Every December Earth passes through this padded rain and crashes into our atmosphere at 79,000 km (127,000 km) per hour, where it usually decays and creates a spectacular light performance.

This year this will reach about 100 per hour around 2 hours PT, according to NASA Bill Cooke.