Northern Tauride meteor shower peaks this week

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The North Taurid meteor showers have been spotted in the sky since October, but the annual rain will peak on November 11 and 12, according to the American Meteor Society.
During this time, Earth will pass through the densest part of the debris flow of Comet 2P / Encke, the celestial body giving rise to the showers of Northern Tauris, according to Bill Cooke Jr., who heads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. .

Astronomers can expect to see around five fireballs per hour on these peak nights, Cooke said. Despite their fiery name, fireballs are perfectly visible and won’t hurt anyone.

Fireballs are meteors that shine brighter than the planet Venus, which is the brightest object in the night sky after the moon, Cooke said. They tend to last about a second or two, compared to the average meteor, which tends to last less than half a second, said Robert Lunsford, coordinator of the Meteor Company report.

Taurid fireballs look like a trail of light across the sky and only appear for a second or two.

While observing the stars in the 1980s, Lunsford said he saw a fireball from the Taurid meteor showers, and it was as if a full moon had appeared.

“I remember sitting at my telescope, and the ground lit up,” Lunsford said. “I looked up fast enough to see the meteor pass.”

Cooke currently relies on NASA’s extensive camera system to see Taurid meteors, but when he was younger he spotted one while processing it.

“I was 13, so I was a nasty little teenager, and I saw a very bright Taurid fireball, and I thought it was a really cool thing to happen on Halloween,” he said. Cooke said.

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The southern Taurid meteor shower, which began in September and straddles the northern Taurids, is also coming from comet 2P / Encke. It peaked on October 29 and 30, according to AMS.

Meteors north of Tauris cross the sky at 18 miles per second, according to AMS, and that’s slower than the average meteor.

This map shows the radiant positions, which are the points of origin, of the North and South Taurids.

The best time to see the meteor shower will be after midnight in your local time zone, according to Cooke. Light pollution from cities can make it difficult to see, so head to a place with little to no artificial lights.

The brightness of the moon can also affect the visibility of the meteor shower. Fortunately, the moon will only be visible 15% during peak hours, according to AMS.

Although the northern Taurid meteor shower peaks in mid-November of this year, the rain will continue until December 10. If you miss the Taurid meteor showers, Don’t worry: the Geminid meteor shower will peak in mid-December.

“This year the Geminids are going to be great because there won’t be a moon to spoil the show,” Cooke said.

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