Begin watching for Taurid fireballs tonight

LOOK, UP IN THE SKY: The meteors will appear to come from Constellation Taurus. Map courtesy of Spaceweather.com

Most people have heard of the annual Perseid meteor shower, which reaches its peak during a night-long period every August. But what about the Taurid meteor shower, which occurs when Earth passes through tiny debris shed by Comet 2p/Encke? Are you familiar with it? In many ways, the Taurids, which begins a week-long peak period tonight, is more interesting than the Perseids. As Spaceweather.com notes, “At most, only about 5 Taurids per hour streak across the sky, but what they lack in number they make up for in dazzle. Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, very bright and slow. Look for them falling out of the constellation Taurus during the hours around midnight.” Some astronomers refer to the Taurids as slow, which they are, compared to some other meteor showers. But the Taurids is caused by debris from a comet strikes Earth’s upper atmosphere at about 37 miles per second, says NASA. Put another way, the meteors could cover the 41 mile length of the Orange County coastline in just over one second.

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