The best times to see the Tauride meteor shower

An astronomical phenomenon could grace the night sky with its presence on Election Day.

The Tauride meteor shower could be visible starting at midnight on Tuesday, according to the American Meteorological Society.

Every year from September to November, the Earth passes through a large stream of debris left by comets. When dust from the comet hits Earth’s atmosphere at 65,000 mph, it burns up and creates a meteor shower, according to NASA.

The Tauride meteor shower originated from Comet Encke, which is one of the largest comets in the solar system, Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, told ABC News. Encke itself is just a fragment of a comet that broke up about 10,000 years ago and produced several smaller objects, he added.

The meteor shower has two branches: the North Taurids and the South Taurids.

The South Taurids are the first branch to reach Earth’s atmosphere. It became active this year on September 23 and is expected to last until December 8.

Visibility for the Southern Taurids is expected to be best on Monday and Tuesday, as the moon will be only 11 percent full — just as the meteorite display is expected to peak, according to the AMS.

Peak activity for the Northern Taurids will follow about a week later. The Northern Taurids are forecast to peak on November 11th and November 12th. However, the moon will be about 79 percent full, which will drown out visibility, according to the AMS.

The Northern Taurids became active on October 13th and are expected to last until December 2nd.

Both branches of the Taurides are rich in fireballs and often lead to an increased number of fireball reports from September to November, according to the AMS.

A “swarm” of fireballs can occur when Earth collides with a group of pebble-sized fragments from the comet, according to NASA.

The next swarm is expected to occur in November 2025, Cooke said.

“What makes them so special is that the Taurides are big,” Cooke said. “They’re big pieces of debris and they produce these very spectacular fireballs.”

The Taurids appear to originate in the constellation Taurus, Cooke said.

Midnight is usually the best time to see them because the constellation Taurus is high in the sky at that time, Cooke said.

Although, he added, “You don’t want to look at Taurus, because the meteors coming from there will have short trains and will be faint.”

What’s more, the Taurids are visible from almost everywhere on Earth — except the South Pole.

The best way to see them is to get as far away from light pollution as possible and look straight up while lying on your back, Cooke said. Meteors will appear all over the night sky.

Patience is key when looking for shooting stars, Shawn Dahl, coordinator for NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told ABC News.

“Sometimes taking the time to look at the sky for a few hours, hoping to see them” is the best plan, Dahl said.

Although the Taurids are considered a long-lived meteor shower, they rarely produce more than five shower members per hour, even at peak activity, according to NASA.

“In most years, the shower is light and only a few Tauris meteors can be seen each night,” according to NASA. “In other years, the Taurides can put on a show.”

The Taurids are one of two meteor showers — the other being the Geminids — that can produce meteorites, Cooke said.

“We call a meteor a shooting star,” he explained. “If something hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.”

Most meteors burn up before they can enter the atmosphere, Cooke said, but the Taurids persist because they move relatively slowly when they enter the atmosphere.

The Taurids are part of a consortium of spectacular astronomical events in recent months.

The Orionid meteor shower took place last month and T Coronae Borealis, also known as the “Blaze Star”, is expected to explode violently in the near future.

The Geminids, which can sometimes produce up to 100 meteors per hour, will occur in mid-December.

“If you search the sky within an hour during the peak of that meteor shower, that’s a good opportunity to definitely see at least one nice, streaky, fast meteor,” Dahl said of the Geminids.

In addition, the current solar cycle is about to peak, which could lead to more frequent and extensive aurora borealis activity.