Autumn's Best Kept Secret: a guide to meteor showers

Stargazers have much to look forward to this Fall season.

Each year, roughly 30 meteor showers are visible to inhabitants on Earth, however, this only scratches the cosmic surface. In our solar system, there are over 100 well-established meteor showers with well-mapped debris paths and consistently predictable regularity. Among these visible meteor showers are the Taurids, Leonids, Geminids, and Ursids.

As the days get shorter, pants get longer, jackets get thicker, and animals begin burrowing in the ground for hibernation, space debris prepares to dance across the sky.

When a comet orbits around the sun, it sheds a long path of dust and ice called a debris trail. When the Earth naturally passes through this discarded comet debris, completing its year-long revolution, the dust and ice, also known as meteoroids, gain entry to our atmosphere. 

Due to the air resistance of Earth’s atmosphere, the meteoroids travelling at a high velocity heat up, leaving streaks across the sky as they burn, creating what we commonly refer to as  “shooting stars.” 

Despite their misleading name, shooting stars aren’t actually stars — they’re composed of rock silicates and metal debris, not gas.

The paths of the meteoroids are parallel to each other, but from our perspective on the surface of the Earth, they appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. This point is called their radiant and a meteoroid’s showers are usually named after the constellation closest to this point! 

Earth travels through many different meteor trails annually with two main periods: late Spring (around May) and late Autumn (the end of October). These periods are defined as the Earth crosses paths with the same comet’s debris: Halley’s Comet.

Below is a compilation of upcoming meteor showers that “shooting star” fanatics and inquisitive scientists alike can expect to look forward to in the coming months.

Taurids Meteor Shower

On any night from Oct. 20 to Dec. 10, the Taurids Meteor Shower will be made visible. The predicted peak is set to be on Nov. 9, so grab your coziest blanket and strongest cup of coffee as the best time for viewing will be around midnight. 

The Taurids are famous for their fireballs that appear bright and colorful in the sky, yielding about five meteors per hour. 

This shower comes from the debris trail of Comet Encke, which is a short-period comet having an orbit of about 3.3 years. The Taurids Meteor Shower gets its name from the fact that its radiant point is in the zodiacal constellation of Taurus!  

Leonids Meteor Shower

The Leonids Meteor Shower occurs sometime around Nov. 3 to Dec. 2 each year, peaking on the night of Nov. 16 to 17. 

The Leonids is considered a major shower due to the high meteor speed, shooting at about 44 miles per second.

This shower comes from Comet Temple-Tuttle which has a 33 year orbit around the sun. The radiant of the Leonids Meteor Shower is in the zodiacal constellation of Leo, which is also where the shower gets its name.  

Geminid Meteor Shower

The Geminid Meteor Shower is active from Dec. 1 to Dec. 21, with its peak resting between Dec.12 into Dec. 13. 

Unlike the unpredictable nature of the zodiac sign, Gemini, whose constellation its radiant point is within, this shower peaks in the month of December every year and is regarded as one of the most reliable meteor showers. 

Viewers should see about 120 “shooting stars” per hour under perfectly clear, dark sky conditions. Although meteor showers normally come from comets, what makes this one special is that it originated from an asteroid. While similar in rock composition, asteroids lack ice causing a lapse in shimmering tails as they travel through the sky. 

The Geminid asteroid of origin, Asteroid 3200 Phaethon, takes about 1.4 years to orbit the Sun and is even more special. Ordinarily, comets uniquely brighten the closer they get to the sun, however, scientists predict Asteroid 3200 Phaethon to be some sort of asteroid-comet hybrid because it defies this rule and sparkles with an observable tail streak.

Ursids Meteor Shower

The Ursids Meteor Shower can be seen from Dec. 13 to Dec. 24 annually, with its predicted peak on Dec. 22. 

This shower always peaks around the December solstice — the Northern Hemisphere’s astronomical start to winter — and is not very active, averaging only about five to 10 meteors per hour. Unlike other meteor showers, the radiant point for this one is located in Ursa Minor, notably the constellation that holds Polaris, nicknamed our North Star, and not inside a zodiacal constellation. 

The parent comet of the Ursid Meteor Shower is called Comet 8P/Tuttle and takes roughly 13.7 earth years to complete its solar orbit. 8P/Tuttle swings out as far as Saturn, and was last seen near the inner planets in August of 2021. 

As the leaves get ready to nestle beneath impending snow, find a spot to bundle up under the dark skies and enjoy the natural firework show above.