By Dharma Niles, CNN
Those who missed last week’s Southern Taurids meteor shower have another chance to watch a fireball blaze across the sky, as the Northern Taurids reach their peak.
With dark skies expected after Monday’s new moon, the best time to view the meteor shower will be Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. Meteors will show as a few seconds of flashing light.
“The observing conditions should be very good,” said Mark Boslough, a research professor in the department of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of New Mexico. “There’s no moonlight to really interfere with getting to see these.”
Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through debris trails from asteroids or comets orbiting the sun. As the bits of ice and rock hit Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up and leave a streak of light across the sky.
The Taurid meteor showers are known for producing fireballs that can be brighter than Venus, one of Earth’s closest planetary neighbors. These fireballs arise from larger debris ranging in size from a marble to a small boulder. They may leave behind shining lines of ionized air molecules that disappear after a few seconds, while others produce smoke trails of cloudlike vapor that remain in the air for minutes.
Observing the Northern Taurids
To watch the meteor shower, find somewhere dark and let your eyes adjust for roughly half an hour, without looking at any bright screens. With NASA projecting a 4%-full, waxing crescent moon, Wednesday night will offer optimal viewing — although peak activity doesn’t occur until 1 p.m. ET Thursday. The bright streaks will seem to emerge from the Taurus constellation.
“One of the interesting things about the Taurid meteor shower is that it does produce these larger objects,” Boslough said. “You don’t necessarily have to look at the constellation — they radiate out of the constellation, but you can see them anywhere in the sky.”
The Northern Taurids, which are active October 20 through December 10, typically create five meteors per hour. When they overlap with the Southern Taurids, which end November 12, that number doubles.
Boslough’s research team observes meteor showers to measure the risk of objects that could hit Earth. In 2025, they published a paper specifically on the Taurid stream, which researchers suggest may carry more potentially dangerous objects.
“The planetary defense experts are interested in the Taurid meteors,” Boslough said. “Observations of this meteor shower will tell us whether there’s anything in there that could put us at risk.”
Ongoing questions about the Northern Taurids
The Northern Taurid meteor shower occurs annually as Earth passes through debris left by an asteroid known as 2004 TG10, discovered in 2004. Scientists think the asteroid was initially part of a much larger object that broke up roughly 20,000 years ago and created the Encke Complex. Another one of those resulting smaller objects is Comet Encke, the comet associated with the Southern Taurids.
In a more recent study, scientists theorized that 2004 TG10 is just one of 10 asteroids responsible for the Northern Taurids, according to EarthSky.
“It’s not a simple meteor stream,” Boslough said, comparing the Taurids to the Perseids meteor shower in August. “With the Taurids, there’s many different components to the complex.”
Boslough, among other scientists, is preparing for a particularly dense Taurid meteor shower in 2032. Knowing broadly where a cluster of dangerous debris will occur, his team will use a telescope to detect the small, dark objects through the heat they emit.
He emphasized that while researchers are looking into the potential for hazardous projectiles, this monitoring is out of “due diligence” rather than imminent concern that one will strike the planet.
“The idea that there is a dense swarm of dangerous objects, that’s completely hypothetical — there’s very little evidence for that,” Boslough said. “But we can’t eliminate the chance that the risk during those times is extremely elevated.”
Upcoming meteor showers
As the year comes to an end, there are still a few more meteor showers to look out for. If you’re seeking another sky-gazing opportunity, here are some peak dates to keep in mind.
· Leonids: November 16-17
· Geminids: December 13-14
· Ursids: December 21-22
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Look out for fireballs as the Northern Taurid meteor shower reaches its peak News Channel 3-12.
Hence then, the article about look out for fireballs as the northern taurid meteor shower reaches its peak was published today ( ) and is available on News channel ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Look out for fireballs as the Northern Taurid meteor shower reaches its peak )
Also on site :
- In 1999, a 25-year-old started a makeup brand with $250,000 from her parents; 15 years later, she sold it to L’Oréal for roughly $400 million
- DistroKid and Kobalt Partner on New Publishing Service for DIY Talent
- Taylor Swift Will Be Honored With The Hollywood Reporter’s Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at Women in Entertainment Gala