WASHINGTON — Two sister meteor showers are already flashing across night skies. They will peak a week apart.
The Southern Taurids will reach their zenith early Tuesday morning and the Northern Taurids on Nov. 12.
While the two showers produce only about five visible meteors per hour under ideal viewing conditions, they are often very bright fireballs, said Sally Brummel, planetarium manager at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum.
“What’s notable is that they’re likely to produce brighter and longer-lasting meteors than some other showers, even if there aren’t as many” at a time, she said.
The Southern Taurids will peak on an evening with a slim crescent moon just 11 percent full. The Northern Taurids may be more obstructed by light from a moon that is 79 percent full.
Viewing of both showers will last into December.
Annual occurrences
Multiple meteor showers occur annually, and you don’t need special equipment to see them.
Most meteor showers originate from the debris of comets. Both Taurid showers share the same parent source, originating from the debris of comet Encke.
When rocks from space enter Earth’s atmosphere, the resistance from the air makes them very hot. This causes the air to glow around them and briefly leaves a fiery tail behind them — the end of a “shooting star.”
The glowing pockets of air around fast-moving space rocks, ranging from the size of a dust particle to a boulder, are often visible in the night sky.
The two Taurid showers share similar names because, when seen in the night sky, they appear to originate from different points in the constellation Taurus.
Meteor showers are usually most visible between midnight and the predawn hours.
