Star Gazing: Fireballs, Meteors and Shooting Stars!

Each month we share a Star Gazing Guide presented and organized by The Great Orbax, a science communicator from the University of Guelph’s Department of Physics and advocate for local science education.

Greetings Star Gazers!

I’m a science communicator from the Department of Physics at the University of Guelph, and I’m here to fill you in on what our November night sky holds for the astro-curious out there, young and old.

In previous articles we have talked A LOT about meteor showers. And why not? Shooting stars have captured the imagination of mankind for as long as we have looked at the sky. Watching a piece of space dust burn its way through our atmosphere on a beautifully lit path of green and white is perhaps one of the most engaging things a person can witness. You’d be hard-pressed to find a person who doesn’t stop mid-sentence to say “Oh look, a shooting star” when within sight.

We are currently experiencing two different meteor showers. The Leonids peak this weekend, November 17th. Unfortunately, two days after our fourth Supermoon of the fall, this means that the light from the Moon will make it difficult to see. We are also currently passing through debris left behind by an asteroid which causes the annual Northern Taurids meteor shower. Maybe five meteors an hour at their peak. But they have the privilege of regularly generating fireballs, something astronomers would call bolides. You might have heard of Halloween Fireballs? Well, these were the result of the Taurids.

The term bolide can refer to several things, but in this case I’m using it to describe an unusually bright shooting star. As we travel through the debris left behind by comets and asteroids, we typically encounter particles the size of dust grains. In the Taurids, however, these particles are the size of pebbles. This means they take longer to burn up in our atmosphere, and if you make a path low in the atmosphere before it burns, that’s when we see a fireball! Just like the one seen in Guelph on Monday night!

To give you some numbers, meteors typically burn up somewhere around 80 km above us. That is the distance from Guelph to Ingersoll. Fireballs can occur as close as 20 km away, so the distance from Guelph to Acton!

I hope you enjoy this month’s Star Gazing Guide. To learn more, check out the November Star Gazing Guide video on the Guelph Physics YouTube channel. Not only is Star Gazing a great way to learn about space, the planets and the stars, but it’s also a great way to spend time with other curious minds.

Until next month, I wish you clear skies and I hope you take the time … to look up.