It doesn’t matter that Halloween is over, because the “fireballs of Halloween “, such as the NASAit will still be visible in the sky in the nights of the next few weeks, thanks to the meteor shower of the southern Taurids.
The estimated peak of the meteor shower will occur this Saturday, the 5th, according to Heaven Earth. The Taurids are known for manufacturing fireballs very bright and in greater quantities – meteors that may seem brighter compared to the planet Venus.
This year’s rain is expected to feature more fireballs, in a phenomenon also known as the Taurid Swarm. The Southern Taurids usually only have five meteors per hour during its peak, which occurs when the Earth is closest to the center of the debris stream. But every seven years, Jupiter’s gravity drags the flow of meteorites and increases the number.
“With normal speed for fireballs, someone would have to be out for 20 hours straight to see one,” said Robert Lunsford, coordinator of the American Meteor Society’s fireball report. “With the Taurids, that time can be shortened a bit, maybe down to five hours. And if you’re very lucky, you can go out and see one in minutes. The time they show up is totally unpredictable.”
Origin of the Taurids
The Taurids are the result of the rupture of a very large comet about 20,000 years ago. Among other debris, that separation created Comet Encke, which has an orbit around the Sun of just over three years, the shortest of any large comet in our solar system. With each passage of the Earth in its short orbit, it leaves behind a trail of debris. That trail includes the Southern Taurids, which are such a large cluster that it takes several weeks to traverse the planet.
“Most meteor showers contain small pieces of dust. Well, the Taurids also have some large particles,” said Bill Cooke, director of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “And while the meteor shower is ongoing, we will not see dust particles, but particles the size of a rock – and some soccer ball size and larger, which, of course, produce extremely bright fireballs.”
see a fireball
Taurid fireballs are meteors over a meter in diameter and are exceptionally bright, according to NASA. They move slowly because they hit Earth’s atmosphere at a perpendicular angle, so they are seen traveling across the sky for a few seconds, in contrast to the millisecond of visibility that most meteors give us.
According to Lunsford, the brightest, longest-lasting meteors can be seen breaking and falling apart as they travel across the sky. Fireballs are often colored and appear to be red, orange, or yellow.
“It would be like a shooting star,” said Mike Hankey, director of operations for the American Meteor Society and creator of the fireball tracking program. “But instead of lasting half a second, it can last three or four seconds, and instead of being as bright as a star, it can be as bright as the moon, sometimes even brighter.”
This year, the meteorite society has already seen an above-average increase in fireballs, while NASA has photographed fireballs that appear to be even brighter than the moon in the night sky.
The best time to go out and spot a fireball will be at 2:00 (6:00 GMT) during the next week, according to Lunsford. As the moon approaches its full moon phase, scheduled for November 8, its glow will begin to disrupt the chances of seeing less intense meteors, but fireballs, due to their size and brightness, can be seen. anywhere in the world, anytime during the night.
More space events this year
There are four more meteor showers you can still see in 2022, according to EarthSky’s Meteor Shower Guide:
- November 12: Northern Taurids
- November 18: Leonidas
- December 14: Geminids
- December 22: Ursidi
And there are two other full moons in the Old Farmer’s Almanac 2022 calendar:
- November 8: The Beaver Moon (which will peak along with a total lunar eclipse)
- December 7: cold moon
