Fireballs are falling to Earth tonight in numbers we won't see for another 10 years

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here's how to watch

Business Insider

jorwig@businesssinsider.com (Jessica Orwig) 

Keep your eyes peeled tonight for some spectacular fireballs lighting up the sky.


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Fireballs are extremely bright meteors, and right now Earth is in the midst of the Tuarid meteor shower, which is peaking on the night of Wednesday, Nov. 11.
"The best time to view the Taurids is from midnight to 3 am local time," NASA wrote in a Reddit AMA. "There should be a handful per hour. Taurid rates are not high, but the ones you will see will be very bright."

The peak of the shower — when we can see the most meteors per hour — is expected to have between seven to 10 meteors per hour, and some of those are almost certain to be a fireball. The best way to watch any meteor shower is to get far away from city lights and look up, no special equipment required.

However, fireballs are bright enough to be seen even amidst city lights, so if you can't get far away from the city, there's still a chance you might spot one, or more.

Look to Taurus

Meteor showers usually happen when Earth passes through a comet's stream of residual dust and debris in space.

 

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 The debris collides with our planet, is pulled toward Earth's center by gravity, and burns up in the atmosphere, producing bright streaks in the night sky that we sometimes refer to as falling stars.
Compared to other meteor showers, the Taurid meteors are relatively sluggish, colliding with Earth at speeds of about 65,000 mph — less than half the speed of the rapid Perseid meteors, which move at about 133,000 mph.

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