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ATLANTA, GA — The South and North Taurids don’t generate the hype or fan buzz as other meteor showers. They don’t carnk out a lot of meteors — maybe a handful an hour — but the Taurids are known for a high percentage of dramatic fireballs. They’re zooming right now over Georgia, and reach peak activity Sunday and Monday, Nov. 4 and 5. Meteors should be visible through the end of November.
There’s no moon to interfere, and the weather in the Atlanta region will be ideal tonight. The forecast calls for clear skies Saturday night; cloudy skies with a chance of rain after 9 p.m. on Sunday night; and cloudy skies with a chance of rain, as well as patchy fog between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.
As Comet Encke orbits the sun, it leaves behind a trail of debris in its wake. In some years — 2015, for example — they produce outbursts, but this isn’t one of those years. The outbursts occur when Jupiter orbits close to the comet stream and its gravity pushes the particles toward Earth.
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Meteor watchers may see an outburst in 2019, NASA’s meteorite expert, Bill Cooke, told Space.com.
To see the most meteors, be patient. Your best chances to see fireballs occurs in the hours between midnight and dawn. The radiant point, Taurus the Bull, will be well above the horizon. It’s not far from the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters.
“You don’t need to identify this constellation to see the meteors,” Earthsky.org said. “They will appear all over the sky.”
The Taurid meteor shower is unusual in that it consists of two separate streams. The South Taurids, which have already peaked, are produced by Asteroid 2004 TG10.
You may also start seeing meteors associated with the Leonid meteor shower, which runs Nov. 6-30. It’s a little more prolific than the Taurids, which produces about 15 meteors an hour at its peak, which occurs around Nov 17-18. This shower has a cyclonic peak every 33 years where hundreds of shooting stars can be seen.The last time that happened was in 2001.
What makes the Leonids spectacular is their swift movement across the sky — about 44 miles per second — and that increases the chances of fireballs.
Also coming up are the spectacular Geminids, which originate from the constellation Gemini. Typically one of the best meteor showers of the year, it produces up to 120 multicolored meteors at its peak, which is Dec. 13-17. The shower runs from Dec. 7-17, and viewing conditions should be excellent this year because the first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight, leaving dark skies in peak viewing hours.
(Photo By NASA/Getty Images)
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