The Phoenicids are a minor meteor shower

Meteor shower

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...

, first noticed by observers in New Zealand, Australia, the Indian Ocean, and South Africa during an outburst of approximately 100 meteors an hour that occurred during December 1956. Like other meteor showers, the Phoenicids get their name from the location of their radiant

Radiant (meteor shower)

The radiant or apparent radiant of a meteor shower is the point in the sky, from which meteors appear to originate. The Perseids, for example, are meteors which appear to come from a point within the constellation of Perseus....

, which is in the constellation Phoenix

Phoenix (constellation)

Phoenix is a minor constellation in the southern sky. It is named after the Phoenix, a mythical bird. It is faint: there are only two stars in the whole constellation which are brighter than magnitude 5.0...

. They are active from 29 November to 9 December, with a peak occurring around 5/6 December each year, and are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

The Phoenicids appear to be associated with a stream of material from the disintegrating comet D/1819 W1 (Blanpain)

D/1819 W1 (Blanpain)

D/1819 W1 is a short-period comet that was discovered by Jean-Jacques Blanpain on November 28, 1819. Blanplain described the comet as having a "very small and confused nucleus". Another independent discovery was made on December 5 of that year by J. L. Pons. Following this the comet was lost, and...

.

A very minor meteor shower with a radiant in Phoenix also occurs in July; this shower is referred to as the July Phoenicids.