The shower is best around 2 a.m., but watch from late evening until dawn. The best morning is likely December 14, 2020.

A few of our favorite images of the waning crescent moon and dazzling planet Venus in the early-morning sky.

Scientists in Germany have created a new family tree of our Milky Way galaxy, showing how it has grown over billions of years from chaotic mergers with smaller galaxies.

Why is the Geminid meteor shower best around 2 a.m.? It's because that's when the shower's radiant point - near the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini - is highest in the sky.

Acorn woodpeckers can be found in the North American West, and in Mexico and Central America. They harvest acorns directly from oak trees, then store the nuts in individually drilled holes in one or more trees, known as "granaries." A single tree may be carrying 50,000 stored nuts!

This video, merging more than 2 decades of footage from SOHO cameras, captures thousands of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections breaking out from the sun.

Over these next few days - December 11, 12 and 13, 2090 - watch for the waning crescent moon to pass by the dazzling planet Venus.

The new moon moves in front of the sun on December 14, 2020, to present this year's one and only total eclipse of the sun.

The 3rd data release from the Gaia mission will provide astronomers with a "treasure trove" of information they didn't have before. As they analyze Gaia's data in the years ahead, we're sure to learn new and surprising things about our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The waning moon passes bright Spica - Virgo's sole 1st-magnitude star - before sunup on December 10, 2020. As viewed from across Earth that morning, the illuminated side of the moon points in the direction of brilliant Venus.