We could see a dramatic increase in the number of fireballs crossing the night sky over the next few weeks, thanks to the Taurid Meteor Swarm.
Every year, from September to November, Earth is bombarded with ice and dust from a pair of large, overlapping debris streams in space. As a result, twin meteor showers light up our night sky, originating from the constellation Taurus.
The North and South Taurids meteor showers appear to originate from the constellation of Taurus. The source of both meteor showers is likely the same object – an ancient, shattered comet. Credit: Stellarium
Even with two meteor showers active in the same part of the sky at the same time, the “Taurids” are usually quite weak. While August’s Perseids or December’s Geminids alone can produce up to 100 meteors per hour during their peak, we typically only see a handful of meteors each hour of Taurid showers, even at their best. . This is because meteoroids in Taurid debris streams are quite scattered. So each year the part of the current that Earth passes through is usually quite sparse.
However, this is not always the case! Embedded in the stream is a collection of larger meteoroids known as the Taurid Resonant Swarm. During the years Earth encounters this swarm, the gravel-sized debris causes Taurid fireballs to ignite at night.
Three Taurid fireballs captured by NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Credit: NASA
The last time we apparently saw a similar event from the Tauride swarm was in 2015. According to Western University meteor expert Peter Brown, there was unusually high activity from the Tauride swarms. Taurids that year.
“Our Southern Ontario Meteor Network cameras captured 54 taurid fireballs from October 31 to November 4 alone, compared to 22, 18 and 32 taurids for the entire month of November in 2014, 2013 and 2012 respectively,” said Brown told Spaceweather.com at the time.
This year, astronomers expect the Tauride swarm to return.
1/3 This year, the Earth passes through the resonant swarm of the Taurid meteor stream. Some have speculated that it could contain asteroids larger than 100m and be the only known concentrated source of potentially dangerous objects. We are organizing an observation campaign to map it! pic.twitter.com/BHI8PEBG8p
1/3 This year, the Earth passes through the resonant swarm of the Taurid meteor stream. Some have speculated that it could contain asteroids larger than 100m and be the only known concentrated source of potentially dangerous objects. We are organizing an observation campaign to map it! Denis Vida on Twitter: “1/3 This year, Earth passes through the resonant swarm of the Taurid meteoroid stream. Some have speculated that it may contain asteroids over 100m and be the only known concentrated source of potentially dangerous objects. We’re organizing an observation campaign to map it! pic.twitter.com/BHI8PEBG8p/Twitter”
As a result, every night from October 24 to November 11, we were able to see an unusually high number of fireball meteors. The best time to watch is around midnight, when the constellation Taurus is high in the sky.
What are we likely to see?
Typical meteors can appear bright when viewed under dark skies. However, they usually cannot compete with urban light pollution. That’s why we advise astronomers to get as far away from city lights as possible to observe a meteor shower.
To see the Taurid Swarm fireballs, however, you can look just about anywhere. You really only need three things: reasonably clear weather, a good view of the night sky, and patience.
As always, patience is a necessity for these events. Even in the best-case scenario for a Taurid swarm spawn, we won’t see hundreds of fireballs throughout the night. Even the figures reported by Peter Brown in 2015 were only about one fireball per hour.
However, it is still much more than what we usually see at this time of year! So if you’re out at night over the next few weeks, don’t be surprised if you spot a few unusually bright meteors streaking across the sky!
Dangers in the Taurid swarm?
According to Denis Vida, meteor researcher at Western University, astronomers are interested in finding larger objects that could be embedded in the resonant Tauride swarm.
“Some have speculated that it may contain more than 100m of asteroids and be the only known concentrated source of potentially dangerous objects,” Vida said in a tweet Wednesday. “We are organizing an observation campaign to map it!
Potentially dangerous objects are near-Earth asteroids and comets that are about 20 times the distance from the Moon and are large enough to cause massive damage if they were to hit us. According to NASA, there are 2,270 known potentially hazardous asteroids, which represents about 8% of the population of near-Earth objects. Of these, only 17 actually appear on NASA’s Sentry hazard chart, each with a very low chance of hitting Earth at some point in the coming decades.
There are two known large objects in the Taurid streams – asteroid 2004 TG10 and comet 1P/Encke (the sources of the North and South Taurid meteor showers, respectively). None of these elements are considered a threat to us.
The orbit of the Taurid meteor stream around the Sun is plotted in this diagram, along with the Taurid resonant swarm. Credit: Western University
However, there is a suspicious timing between when Earth passes through the “outgoing” section of the Taurid flow (early June to mid-July) and one of the largest impacts in recent history – the Tunguska event of June 30, 1908.
This coincidence has some researchers wondering if the object that exploded over Siberia about 114 years ago came from the Tauris current.
Locating larger objects in the Taurid swarm as it passed could solve the mystery of what happened on June 30, 1908. At the same time, it could also give us a better idea if the swarm lands us a danger in the future.
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