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Taurids Put on Worldwide Fireworks Show
The Taurid meteor shower is putting on a spectacular show this year, generating fireballs that have been sighted over Europe and the United States. The streaks of light are often brighter than a full moon and in some cases are bright enough to cause viewers to temporarily loose their night vision. "I thought some wise guy was shining a spotlight at me," backyard astronomer Josh Bowers of New Germany, Pennsylvania, told the Science@NASA news Web site.
According to Reuters, fireball sightings in Germany have put UFO reports on the rise. The wire service notes that some professional astronomers believe the German sightings could be caused by debris from a falling satellite. But the most likely explanation, according David Asher, a scientist at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland and a meteor expert is that sky watchers this year are seeing an unusually bright version of the annual Taurid meteor shower.
The Taurids arrive in late October and early November and originate from the debris of comet Encke, discovered in 1786. Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, is well traveled. Having exhausted its supply of fine particles, it now leaves a long trail of larger more gravel-like debris, about one millimeter in size or greater. Asher and other astronomers have postulated that Encke may also be related to the famous Tunguska event.
This year's Taurids, whose weeklong peak of meteor activity NASA said would start today, are expected to be brighter and more frequent than usual. In 1993 Asher and colleague Victor Clube published a paper predicting the years which might have brighter than normal Taurids and also predicted what they dubbed swarm years, when the Taurids would be especially bright—2005 was on their list.
The Northern Taurids are active from October 12 to December 2. The period of maximum activity (7 meteors/hour on average) is of long duration and extends over November 4-7 (solar longitude=221 deg-224 deg) from an average radiant of RA=54 deg, DEC=+21 deg. The radiant's daily motion is +0.78 deg in RA and +0.19 deg in DEC.
For an extensive history of the Taurid meteor shower (and others) link to Gary Kronk’s site at http://comets.amsmeteors.org
According to Reuters, fireball sightings in Germany have put UFO reports on the rise. The wire service notes that some professional astronomers believe the German sightings could be caused by debris from a falling satellite. But the most likely explanation, according David Asher, a scientist at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland and a meteor expert is that sky watchers this year are seeing an unusually bright version of the annual Taurid meteor shower.
The Taurids arrive in late October and early November and originate from the debris of comet Encke, discovered in 1786. Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, is well traveled. Having exhausted its supply of fine particles, it now leaves a long trail of larger more gravel-like debris, about one millimeter in size or greater. Asher and other astronomers have postulated that Encke may also be related to the famous Tunguska event.
This year's Taurids, whose weeklong peak of meteor activity NASA said would start today, are expected to be brighter and more frequent than usual. In 1993 Asher and colleague Victor Clube published a paper predicting the years which might have brighter than normal Taurids and also predicted what they dubbed swarm years, when the Taurids would be especially bright—2005 was on their list.
The Northern Taurids are active from October 12 to December 2. The period of maximum activity (7 meteors/hour on average) is of long duration and extends over November 4-7 (solar longitude=221 deg-224 deg) from an average radiant of RA=54 deg, DEC=+21 deg. The radiant's daily motion is +0.78 deg in RA and +0.19 deg in DEC.
For an extensive history of the Taurid meteor shower (and others) link to Gary Kronk’s site at http://comets.amsmeteors.org
