The annual Geminids meteor shower peaked overnight into Friday morning.
The meteors appeared to radiate from a point near the star Castor, in the constellation Gemini.
In the northern hemisphere, that was westward and nearly overhead in the early hours of Friday.
Many sky watchers saw dozens of "shooting stars" per hour, made easier to see by darkness provided by the "new moon" phase.
The shower comes about each year as the Earth passes through the path of an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
The asteroid leaves behind a trail of rocky debris that the Earth ploughs into each year - debris moving at 35km per second that burns up in the atmosphere in what can be spectacular displays.
According to the International Meteor Organization, the "radiant" - the apparent point from which the meteors seem to come - was visible from sunset in high northern latitudes, rising at about midnight local time in the southern hemisphere.
The Geminids are less well-known relative to other annual meteoric performances such as the Perseids, in part because December weather often threatens a clear view of the show.
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20709852#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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