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Southern Taurid Meteor Shower Peaks This Week Under Dark Skies

Known for occasional bright fireballs, the shower peaks around Nov. 5 with little competition from moonlight ahead of next week's new moon.

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The Southern Taurid meteor shower is set to peak overnight around Nov. 4 into Nov. 5, with EarthSky projecting the busiest activity near 00:22 UTC on Nov. 5 — though the shower has no sharp single peak, meaning good viewing should stretch across several nights around that window.

The Taurids are sparse compared with showers like the Perseids or Geminids, typically producing only a handful of meteors per hour, but they are known for occasional bright fireballs, earning the Northern Taurids, which follow in a few days, the nickname "Halloween fireballs" in some years. A new moon on Nov. 9 means dark skies with minimal lunar interference for anyone watching this week.

The Northern Taurids pick up afterward, running roughly Nov. 9 through 12, giving skywatchers close to two weeks of overlapping activity from the two related streams, both linked to debris from Comet 2P/Encke.

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Elena Duarte · Space & Science Correspondent

Writes about space and the physical sciences for UBStandard — missions, telescopes and the questions they answer.

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