Twin ‘Taurid’ Meteor Showers Will Overlap in Night Sky This Month. Where Do They Come From?

A meteor burns up in the sky over al-Abrak desert north of Kuwait City in December 2023. YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images

Outer space is overflowing with cosmic junk. Bits of debris from broken asteroids and comets are literally everywhere.

Astronomers have made many discoveries from studying the origins of floating space debris, such as uncovering their link to meteor showers. Each year, Earth ploughs through patches of this rubble, causing pieces to fall to Earth, burn up in our atmosphere, and become meteors. At least 100 of these annual showers have been found. November has two.

A meteor is just a hunk of space rock that ignites as it falls to Earth. Atmospheric friction makes them burn up and look like shots of light darting across the sky. We also call them shooting stars.

During this month, observers may spot crisscrossing meteors appearing to fly out of the constellation Taurus from two distinct points. The Southern Taurids, named after said constellation, will peak on Nov. 5, while the Northern Taurids’ peak is around Nov. 9. Each is a totally separate meteor shower from the other, though their points of origin are tightly woven.

The constellation Taurus and radiant points of the Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids. The Epoch Times

Even though we’re already dipping into peak Taurid season, the number of meteors won’t change much; there’s still lots of time for viewing. The Taurids don’t intensify dramatically when peaking like some showers, but rather ramble on very steadily from around late September until early December, with the Southern Taurids kicking things off and the Northern Taurids finishing up.

Origin of the Taurids

It’s believed both Taurid showers come from a large group of sun-orbiting objects that broke up 20,000 years ago. One object, an asteroid called 2004 TG10, and another, Comet 2P/Encke, at one time comprised a larger object known as the Encke Complex. The two chunks eventually broke down further to form the debris that became the Taurids—this is the most widely accepted theory of their origin.

The Southern Taurids came from Comet 2P/Encke and still follow its wake, orbiting in the same way around the sun. The Northern Taurids are more of a mystery, however, as astronomers say they come from multiple sources—including the asteroid 2004 TG10 and 10 other distinct objects from the Encke Complex. Scientists have been using special night-time cameras to film falling meteors and computers to instantly calculate their orbits in order to solve the puzzle of their origin.

How to Spot the Taurids

If you step outside to scan the sky tonight you might sight as many as five meteors per hour from each shower, for a total of ten per hour under ideal, dark conditions.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the best way to view them is to avoid searching the constellation Taurus itself and scout the whole sky instead. They'll fan outward from Taurus in all directions, with long streaks appearing far away from the constellation. Maybe grab a lawn chair or blanket and lie back someplace dark to view them under the stars—if the weather permits.

While the radiants won’t yield any meteors, it’s still useful to track their positions, since the best time for meteor spotting is when they’re high and shooting in all directions. The Taurid radiants will rise in the early evening and reach their height around midnight. Also try spotting the Pleiades star cluster northwest of Taurus while you’re at it.

Bright Taurid fireballs recorded by the NASA All Sky Fireball Network stations. NASA

One big highlight of viewing the Taurids is the frequent fireballs (dramatic and fiery meteors) that they’re famous for. Taurid fireballs are colorful and can fragment in mid-air like fireworks, making a dazzling display. About 1 percent of the Taurids become fireballs, though surges of up to 7 percent happen every few years.

Unfortunately for meteor spotters this month, the full moon will occur when the Taurids peak. And it will be a supermoon—the largest of the year—so the shooting stars will face some stiff competition. Fewer Taurids will be seen due to moonlight washing them out.

The Taurids’ Radiant

The point where meteors seem to originate from is called their radiant. It may seem strange that both the Northern and Southern Taurids’ radiants always appear in constellation Taurus—a constellation tens of light-years away—when we know these meteors are orbiting around our sun. They collide with Earth every November.

Taurus, meanwhile, isn’t anywhere near our sun. The bright star Aldebaran is the constellation’s nearest star to Earth, yet it lies some of 65–67 million light years away. So it begs the question: Why do the Taurids’ radiants always appear in Taurus?

The answer is explained by a simple trick of perspective. Meteors exhibit the same principle of one-point perspective that’s seen in parallel train tracks that appear to converge on the horizon but never actually meet. Meteors also travel in parallel as they orbit the sun, all following the same fixed path. There’s no point of convergence, nor any connection between the Taurid meteors and the Taurus constellation.