Southern Taurid meteor shower peaks tonight

Fireballs may appear across the sky over the United States tonight.

The Southern Taurid meteor shower peaks during the night of November 4-5. The Taurids are active annually, beginning in September and ending in November. They are known to comprise a particularly group Large number of brighter than average meteors, known as fireballs..

This is one of the shower’s “swarm years,” when Earth passes through an area of ​​particularly large debris from the meteor’s parent comet, 2P/Encke. Swarm years can bring twice the number of visible meteors per hour, and under ideal viewing conditions, around 10 meteors per hour would light up the sky tonight. However, the fireballs will share the sky with the Super Beaver Moon, the largest and brightest of the year, which will rise on November 5. The brighter-than-usual lunar activity will likely wipe out all but the most luminescent Taurids.

The annual fall meteor shower includes both the Southern and Northern Taurids, but only the Southern faction will peak this week. The Northern Taurids will be most active from November 11 to 12 and will last until December 12. Since they won’t compete with the full moon, the peak of the Northern Taurids may offer stargazers a more dazzling spectacle than we can expect from their southern counterparts this week.

If you still want to try your hand at seeing shooting stars, choose a viewing location with as little light as possible and be sure to give your eyes 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness before turning your gaze to the sky. Look about 40 degrees above the constellation Taurus, the point of radiant or apparent origin of the meteors. Can approximate degrees using a closed fist and with your arm extended, which should correspond to about 10 degrees in the night sky. Your best bet is to search the sky from midnight before sunrise until 5 a.m. on the morning of November 5, when the moon will be low in the sky.

The next Southern Taurid swarm is not expected until November 2032.

Despite the unfortunate timing of this year’s full moon at the peak of the Southern Taurids, stargazers need not despair: there will be many more opportunities to witness some fantastic astronomical activity this November. The Leonid meteor shower should give fans their fix of shooting stars on November 16-17, when up to 15 meteors per hour will be visible while a waning crescent moon at 9 percent illumination provides optimal dark conditions.

We’re also currently in a great year to see the Northern Lights thanks to the sun’s maximum solar phase causing increased activity, so there’s no better time to put a trip to the Northern Lights on the calendar.