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Bright Fireball Taurids@2009

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Uploaded by on Nov 12, 2009

The Taurids are an annual meteor shower associated with the comet Encke. They are named after their radiant point in the constellation Taurus, where they are seen to come from in the sky. Because of their occurrence in late October and early November, they are also called Halloween fireballs.
Encke and the Taurids are believed to be remnants of a much larger comet, which has disintegrated over the past 20,000 to 30,000 years, breaking into several pieces and releasing material by normal cometary activity or perhaps occasionally by close encounters with the gravitational field of Earth or other planets (Whipple, 1940; Klačka, 1999). In total, this stream of matter is the largest in the inner solar system. Due to the stream's size, the Earth takes several weeks to pass through it, causing an extended period of meteor activity, compared with the much smaller periods of activity in other showers. The Taurids are also made up of weightier material, pebbles instead of dust grains.
Typically, Taurids appear at a rate of about 7 per hour, moving slowly across the sky at about 17 miles per second (27 kilometers per second), or 65,000 miles per hour. If large enough, these meteors may become bolides, with spectacular light shows and even audible sound.
Due to the gravitational effect of planets, especially Jupiter, the Taurids have spread out over time, allowing separate segments labeled the Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids to become observable. Essentially these are two cross sections of a single, broad, continuous stream in space. The Beta Taurids, encountered by the Earth in June/July and which many astronomers consider the cause of the Tunguska event, are also a cross section of the stream. Beta Taurids approach from the Earth's daytime side; so cannot be observed visually in the way the (night-time) Northern and Southern Taurids of October/November can.
The Taurid stream has a cycle of activity that peaks roughly every 2500 to 3000 years, when its core passes nearer to Earth and produces more intense showers. In fact, because of the separate "branches" (night-time in one part of the year and daytime in another; and Northern/Southern in each case) there are two (possibly overlapping) peaks separated by a few centuries, every 3000 years. Some astronomers note that dates for megalith structures such as Stonehenge are associated with these peaks.
The next peak is expected around 3000 AD, suggesting that the Taurids may also be responsible for the Star of Bethlehem. It has been suggested that in 1 AD, there were Taurid meteor showers due to the Encke tail encountering Earth and breaking up [1].
The Taurids also have more frequent peaks which may result from a heavier concentration of material in the stream, which only hits Earth during some passes.
Some consider the Bronze Age breakup of the originally larger comet to be responsible for ancient destruction in the Fertile Crescent, perhaps evidenced by a large meteor crater in Iraq. The origin of the swastika has also been connected with Comet Encke. However The bronze age was approximately 6000 years ago and the original break up of the parent comet, as mentioned above, occurred long before that. Ancient Peoples may have been used to Tunguska Class impacts which occur approximately every 300 years as calculated by Eugene Shoemaker and Krakatoa type eruptions both of which have widespread climatic effects and which would dwarf any climatic effects from the slight increase in upper atmospheric dust caused by Bolides due to passing through the tail of Comet Encke.

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Uploader Comments (WatchJag)

  • thats not a shower its one clip being repeated because every meteor freezes here 0:01

  • As the title says "Bright Fireball"

  • well don't put part of the title as meteor shower if your only showing one meteor than its not a shower. And I know that there was probably one there at that time but people would expect to see a shower. Still it does look cool.

  • I have changed it for you, have a great new year.

    I try and get a better video this year, Soon in any one whats info information and updates on meteor shower in 2010, I will be making a page on my site.

Top Comments

  • that is such a cool meteor!

  • If I had seen that just walking to my car at night, not knowing what it was... I seriously think I would have shit my pants...

Video Responses

This video is a response to Perseids Meteor Shower - Highlights From 2010
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All Comments (8)

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  • @WatchJag K

  • was that a torchlight reflecting on a window?

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