November is definitely a month that brings up thoughts about
what you should be thankful for. Well today I
am thankful that in my lifetime, we have not been hit by a big enough asteroid that would
cause a global catastrophe. While there is always a chance in the future, we
can current enjoy the small meteor showers, that don’t offer a chance of doom.
There are two different types of meteor showers, there is annual showers that are
meteoroids that have been scattered along an orbit of a comet or ex-comet.
Then, there is periodic showers that are clusters of meteoroids that are along
certain locations of a comet’s orbit.
Annual showers happen around the same time each year when Earth crosses
that comet’s orbit, while periodic showers only happen when the Earth happens
to cross the cometary orbit near the clusters of meteorites. What is great
about meteor showers, is they can be seen with the naked eye, so everyone can
enjoy them. They look like shooting stars, but at a slow steady pace. You may
be surprised that there are about 25 million meteors you could see going
through Earth’s atmosphere every single day. In fact, Earth adds about 100 tons
of mass per day due to these small meteorites.
You’re in luck because we currently have the annual Northern
Taurids meteor shower, in fact the peak day to watch is tomorrow, November 12,
2019. This meteor shower is active starting October 20th and goes on
till December 10th, but November 12 will be the best day to view it.
This is a slower shower, with about 5 meteors every hour. You may start looking
as soon as the sky gets dark. If you look in the night sky and find the
constellation, Taurus, it will look as if the meteors are coming from the
constellation. So I hope the meteor shower, will bring you thankful thoughts,
as you watch the blue streaks through the night sky.
References:
(2019). Retrieved 11 November 2019, from https://www.imo.net/members/imo_showers/working_shower_list
Ryden, B., & Peterson, B. (2011). Foundations of
astrophysics. San Francisco: Pearson.
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