The Taurid meteor shower began back in September, and the second part of the shower, the northern stream, peaks tonight. We won’t be seeing a display anywhere near as tasty as the upcoming Geminids in December, but the prospect of seeing a fireball or shooting star is still a tantalising one.
The Taurid meteor shower is made up of two streams, the Southern Taurids, which began on 10 September 2023 and peaked 10-11 October, and the Northern Taurids, which began on 20 October.
And with the Southern Taurids still underway, as well as the Leonids which began on 9 October, even with the low hourly rate of the Northern Taurids, it’s still worth a gander if the weather stays clear.
Why not brush up on your lunar photography with our expert guide on how to take great pictures of the Moon? And for a full roundup of this year's meteor showers, we’ve got all the dates and peak rates listed in our meteor shower calendar.
When is the Taurid meteor shower in 2023?
The Northern Taurid meteor shower peaks on Sunday 12 November and Monday 13 November 2023. The shower began on 20 October 2023 and will gradually tail off before ending around 10 December.
The Northern Taurids are the second stream in this meteor shower. The first was the Southern Taurids which started on 10 September, peaked on 10-11 October, and are still active now – continuing until 20 November 2023.
Where to look to see a fireball
The Taurids (both the northern and southern stream) appear to originate from the constellation Taurus the Bull. The Northern Taurids radiate from a point in Taurus slightly further to the north, and are most active in November. The earlier Southern Taurids, meanwhile, radiate from nearer to the southern border of the constellation, and are most active in October.
“It's visible all around the world, so long as you have a clear sky. No matter where you are on Earth – with Antarctica being the sole exception – the Taurids meteor shower graces the skies of almost every corner of our planet,” says astronomer Dr Minjae Kim.
To locate Taurus, look towards the winter constellation Orion; easily identifiable by the three bright stars that make up Orion’s Belt. Extend an imaginary line through these three stars, upwards and towards the right – and you’ll hit Aldebaran, a lovely red giant that makes up the eye of Taurus, and the brightest star in the constellation.
If you need a little extra help, using an app will point you in the right direction (check our best astronomy apps to get started).
With multiple showers occurring at the same time, knowing where the radiant is will help you tell your Taurid from your Leonid, and determine which meteor belongs to which shower.
However, meteors won’t be restricted to that one area; you’ll be able to see them streaking across the whole sky. For best results, try to take in as much of the sky as possible and you might be able to spot one of these rare Autumn meteors.
When is the best time to see the Northern Taurid meteor shower?
The best time to try and spot one of the elusive Northern Taurids is when the radiant (Taurus) is high in the sky, so potential meteors are not shooting down below the horizon. Late evening through to the small hours the next morning should provide decent conditions, providing the sky is cloud-free, and with little-to-no light pollution where you are.
Unless we get lucky with a fireball, we need a nice, dark Moon for optimal viewing. Thankfully the Moon will be nicely out of the way during the peak, as it’s a new Moon (and therefore a nice dark one) on 13 November.
It’s a sparse shower, but Taurid meteors are visible when Taurus is above the horizon. At the peak on 12-13 November, Taurus rises in the northern hemisphere around sunset and will be visible at the latest 11pm across the UK and US. It will remain above the horizon until sunrise the next morning.
“The best time to view this shower is 13 November 2023, at 12:21am, when the Moon won't interfere. You don't even need any equipment such as telescopes or binoculars,” says Kim.
If you’re looking for other targets while you wait, be sure to check out the Pleiades asterism in Taurus. Otherwise known as the Seven Sisters, now is a great time to view this star cluster as it’s visible all night long. It’s a small, but beautiful asterism, and somewhat resembles a miniature Big Dipper, when seen unaided. It’s one of the most prominent deep-sky objects that we can see with the naked eye, and has a distinctive blue-ish haze.
How many meteors will I be able to see?
In all likelihood, not many. The maximum rate for the Northern Taurid meteor shower is less than 5 per hour. But they are relatively slow, travelling around 27km/s and bright.
However, the Taurids do have a trick up their sleeve… fireballs.
Will I be able to see a fireball?
Most meteors are caused by tiny particles of dust and debris, around the size of a grain of sand. But the Taurid stream contains more pebble-sized bits, and fragments larger than 10cm, which produce much brighter, longer-lasting meteors called fireballs. These are very impressive, and are often captured on doorbell cameras as they set off the motion detection.
So, although the shower is a sparse one, the potential for seeing fireballs is exciting. And it looks as though there may be a seven-year periodicity for producing even more Taurid fireballs, in what has been dubbed a “Taurid swarm”, although sadly not predicted for this year. The previous years have held to this pattern, with fireball swarms seen in 2008, 2015 and 2022.
In 2015, around 200 fireballs were recorded as part of the Taurid meteor shower, with some estimates suggesting debris of around 1 metre in diameter. More research is needed, but if this is correct, the next fireball swarm could be seen in 2029.
If you spot a fireball, you can report it to the International Meteor Organisation global fireball database via the UK Meteor Network.
What causes the Northern Taurid meteor shower?
Meteor showers happen when space dust and bits of debris hit our atmosphere, burning up in the process, resulting in streaks of light we see as shooting stars.
The debris is left behind by comets as they orbit the Sun, shedding material along the way. When Earth moves through this stream of debris, that’s when we get meteor showers. The Solar System is scattered with debris from lots of different comets, so we get another meteor shower every time we intersect one of these debris fields.
But for the Northern Taurids, the guilty party is actually an asteroid called 2004 TG10.
“The Northern Taurids are created by Earth's passage through the remnants of the eccentric asteroid 2004 TG10,” says Kim.
It’s thought that 2004 TG10 may be a large fragment that has broken off the periodic Comet Encke, as their orbits are similar. The asteroid is classified as a Near Earth Object, and ‘potentially hazardous’ due to its close approaches to Earth. It has a highly elliptical orbit of 3.34 years, and current estimates place it around 1.3km in diameter, making it larger than 99 per cent of asteroids.
“In contrast, the Southern Taurids, which peaked between November 4th and 6th, are a result of our planet passing through the debris left by the short-period comet Encke,” adds Kim.
It’s been hypothesised that Comet Encke itself is a fragment of a much larger comet that broke up around 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. It’s possible, too, that a fragment of Encke itself was responsible for the Tunguska event; a massive airburst in 1908 which flattened trees and caused huge amounts of destruction over a 2,150km2 area of Siberia.
With several asteroids and meteor showers potentially associated with the same object, astronomers often refer to this as the Encke Complex.
Why do we have Northern and Southern streams?
“This shower is particularly unique, not only for its long-lasting display, visible throughout October and November, but in that it comprises two distinct streams (the southern and northern Taurids). Both of these streams have spread over time due to the gravitational influence of Jupiter,” explains Kim.
This debris has become so spread out, that there are distinct streams – resulting in the two main showers.
Like Halley’s Comet that spawns both the Eta Aquariids and the Orionids, Comet Encke is associated with two main streams, whether directly or indirectly: the Northern Taurids and the Southern Taurids. There is also a third stream from Comet Encke, called the Beta Taurids, but it’s a daytime shower and can only be seen by radar and radio-echo techniques.
About our expert
Dr Minjae Kim is a research fellow in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick, where they study comet dust and space debris to better understand the formation of planetary systems. Their research has been published in journals including Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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