Come on out to watch the Taurids meteor showers.
(from Space.com)
The Taurid meteor shower is composed of two streams: The Southern Taurids which peak between Nov. 4 and Nov. 5; and the Northern Taurids which peak between Nov. 12 and Nov. 13.
These showers produce infrequent, slow and long-lasting meteors associated with comet Encke, a small comet with a nucleus measuring approximately 2.98 miles (4.8 km) in diameter.
2022 might be a particularly good year for Taurid fireballs as the American Meteor Society(opens in new tab) suggests a notable increase in fireball activity every seven years. As 2015 produced incredible Taurid fireballs, 2022 might be next. Keep your eyes peeled!
As the Taurids occur in late October they are sometimes referred to as "Halloween fireballs."
Taurid meteors tend to be larger than other meteors and can survive for longer periods as they pass through Earth's atmosphere. According to NASA(opens in new tab), Orionids for example, typically burn up at altitudes around 58 miles (93 km) whereas Taurids typically make it as far as 42 miles (66 km). They also travel relatively slowly, traversing the sky at about 17 miles (27 kilometers) per second or 65,000 miles (104,000 km) per hour. The Perseids, on the other hand, zip through the sky at 37 miles (59 km) per second.
(From Earthsky.org)
The object responsible for the Northern Taurid meteor shower is believed to be an asteroid named 2004 TG10. The Spacewatch program discovered it on October 8, 2004. Its orbit around the sun closely matches that of periodic Comet Encke (officially known as 2P/Encke). Scientists believe this asteroid was once part of a much larger object known as the Encke Complex.
The most widely accepted theory is that about 20,000 years ago, a much larger object broke up, creating Comet Encke and several asteroids and meteor showers. Scientists named this group of resultant objects after the most prominent member of the group: Comet Encke. Hence, the Encke Complex.
One recent study indicates that the asteroid 2004 TG10 is only one of 10 related asteroids that may be responsible for this meteor shower. If that is true, then no single asteroid is producing the material causing the Northern Taurid meteors.
How is a mystery like this solved? Time and teamwork. Special night-time video cameras record incoming meteors, and computers calculate the orbit almost immediately. Scientists compare these orbits to known objects, such as comets and asteroids. A direct match is unlikely, because any piece of material ejected from a comet or asteroid – perhaps hundreds of years ago – has been subjected to solar radiation and planetary perturbations, changing its path around the sun. So, its final orbit, just before it enters our atmosphere, is likely different than the orbit it originated from. Astronomers who specialize in celestial mechanics will be the ones to bring us the solution.
The Southern Taurids radiant comes from the comet known as Encke’s Comet. Officially known as 2P/Encke, this comet was discovered four times before it received its name, and the name it has is not for one of the discoverers.
The French comet hunter Pierre Mechian discovered it on January 17, 1786. He observed the comet for only three days and did not calculate its orbit. Next up was Caroline Herschel of England, who found it on November 7, 1795, 10 years later. She tracked it for 23 days but did not calculate an accurate orbit. Ten years later, Frenchman Jean-Louis Pons, the greatest visual comet hunter of all time, picked it up on October 20, 1805. Within hours of Pons’ discovery, Hofrath Huth of Germany and Bovard in Paris picked it up too. This time they followed it for 32 days.
Enter Johann Franz Encke. Using these positions, he calculated an orbit for this comet and predicted that it would return. End of story? No, because he predicted it would return in 12.12 years. It didn’t.
Then, on November 26, 1818, Pons picked up a comet and tracked it for 48 days. Encke calculated an orbit for this one, and using some new computing techniques, came up with an orbital solution suggesting the comet takes only 3.3 years to go around the sun once. After six weeks of work, he was also able to link this comet to the comets of 1786, 1795 and 1805. He then correctly predicted that it would return in 1822. Based upon his work correctly calculating the comet’s orbit, the comet received the name Encke.
Comet Encke has the shortest orbital period of any major comet in our solar system. At its closest, it gets as close to the sun as does the planet Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. The orbit is stable, and the comet has probably been in the same orbit for thousands of years.
A recent theory is that Comet Encke was once part of a larger comet that broke up about 20,000 years ago. This event produced several small asteroids and debris that now forms this meteor shower. And there are more. Scientists attribute at least three other meteor showers to Comet Encke. One stream of material might have delivered the object responsible for the Tunguska meteor event of 1908. This whole system is known as the Encke Complex.
Enjoy and good hunting!