In the summer we could see the Perseids in the sky, in October the Orionids and Draconids, and now it's time for meteors from the Taurid meteor shower. In their case, you have to be patient, but astronomy popularizer Karol Wójcicki argues that it is really worth it.
The Southern Taurids is a meteor shower active from September to mid-November. Its maximum, i.e. the time when you can see the most so-called shooting stars, falls around November 5. Just a few days later, the swarm called the Northern Taurids will reach its maximum. This moment usually falls around November 12.
Meteors are light phenomena accompanying the passage of a rock fragment space (meteoroid) through the Earth's atmosphere. Most of such particles burn in the atmosphere, only the larger ones are able to reach the surface of our planet and after falling we find them as meteorites.
Taurids can delight
Taurids are not as active as, for example, meteors from the Perseid meteor shower, of which we can see even dozens in an hour, when their maximum occurs. When looking for the Taurids, it is possible to observe only two to three meteors per hour, but – as Karol Wójcicki, the popularizer of astronomy and author of the social media profile “With Your Head in the Stars”, points out – in these showers, bolides are often observed, i.e. very bright meteors, brighter from the planet Venus, which is clearly visible in the sky.
“It is worth monitoring the sky over the next week. The chances of seeing Taurid are very low, but when it does appear, oh my,” writes Wójcicki on social media.
The Taurids formed from the remains of a large comet that probably approached the Sun thousands of years ago and began to disintegrate. They are most often attributed to comet 2P/Encke, which has one of the shortest known orbits of any comet, orbiting the Sun approximately every 3.3 years.
“With your head in the stars”, tvnmeteo.pl
Main photo source: Shutterstock