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A meteor shower will peak on November 11 and 12, known as the Northern Taurid meteor shower, part of a larger meteor shower that includes Southern Taurid. The meteor shower is one of the slowest of the year, producing an average of five shooting stars per hour at its peak.
Overall, the Northern Taurid meteor shower lasts from 12 October to 2 December, while the Southern Tauride lasts from 25 September to 25 November.
The names are designated by which hemisphere of the Earth they can be seen.
Overall, they are part of the Taurid meteor shower, which originates from 2P / Encke.
When small grains of ice and debris fall from the comet, they float in space.
The Earth then travels through the debris field, raining grains of ice and dust into the Earth’s atmosphere, giving the impression of shooting stars.
Astronomy website Space Weather said, “If you see a fireball this week, it’s probably a piece of Comet 2P / Encke, the source of the annual Northern Taurid meteor shower.
“The Northern Taurid meteors are notoriously slow and bright and fly out of an easy to find patch of sky near the Pleiades.
“The shower will be active throughout the week as Earth passes through the comet’s broad trail of gravelly debris.
READ MORE: Fireball Video: Western America Sees “Most Amazing” Meteor
“Experienced astronomers often use the Orion belt to find the most important signals of Taurus: the V-shaped Hyades star cluster with the bright star Aldebaran in the center and the magnificent Pleiades star cluster.”
Due to their projection in October and November, taurid meteor showers are sometimes called Halloween fireballs.
Comet 2P / Encke was part of a much larger comet system, which has slowly disintegrated over the past 30,000 years.
The debris fragments hit our planet’s atmosphere at about 17 miles per second or 65,000 miles per hour.
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