如何观看今年的金牛座流星雨

如何观看今年的金牛座流星雨

Excited about cooler temperatures and fall activities? Be sure to save some of that outdoor enthusiasm for the night sky.

对凉爽的天气和秋天的活动感到兴奋吗?一定要把一些户外活动的热情留给夜空。

The Taurid meteor shower as seen in Joshua Tree, California, in 2015. (Photo: Channone Arif [CC BY 2.0]/Wikimedia Commons)

The Taurid meteor shower is a fairly long-running event, often producing visible fireballs for several weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving, and tends to offer more than one peak. In 2019, meteor activity from the Taurids is expected to be the highest for about a week between Nov. 4 and Nov. 12. Unlike other celestial fireworks from recurring showers like the Perseids or Leonids, the Taurids aren't so famous for their frequency as they are for the extremely bright fireballs.

金牛座流星雨是一个相当长时间的事件，经常在万圣节和感恩节之间的几周内产生可见的火球，而且往往提供一个以上的高峰。2019年，金牛座的流星活动预计将在11月4日至11月12日之间的一周内达到最高。与英仙座流星雨和狮子座流星雨等流星雨中的其他天体不同，金牛座流星雨的频率并不像它们的明亮火球那样出名。

The dust from the Taurids, which originate from debris left behind by Comet Encke, hits the Earth’s atmosphere at 65,000 miles per hour (104,000 kilometers per hour) and burns up, creating the Taurid meteor shower, according to NASA. Most years the shower is weak, and only a few Taurid meteors can be seen each night. Too much moonlight can interfere, too, and while viewing might be good for a few nights this month.

据美国国家航空航天局称，金牛座流星雨的尘埃来自恩克彗星留下的碎片，以每小时6.5万英里(10.4万公里)的速度撞击地球大气层并燃烧，形成了金牛座流星雨。大多数年份的流星雨都很微弱，每晚只能看到很少的金牛座流星雨。

Where and when to look

何时何地去看

The Taurid meteor shower appears to radiate from the general direction of the constellation Taurus, whose brightest star is the red giant Aldebaran, located near the center of this image. (Photo: Baldas1950/Shutterstock)

The Taurids include two streams of meteors that broke off from Comet Encke in separate events. The South Taurids are the stronger of the two streams, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS), and have three shallow peaks during their duration: around Oct. 10, Nov. 1 and Nov. 15. The North Taurids peak near Nov. 3, and it's this overlapping one-two punch that creates the prolonged viewing window in early November, the AMS explains.

金牛座流星雨包括两股从恩克彗星上分离出来的流星雨。根据美国流星协会(AMS)的数据，南金牛座是两股气流中较强的，在持续期间有三个浅层高峰:10月10日左右、11月1日和11月15日。北牛头峰在11月3日左右，正是这种重叠的连续冲击造成了11月初的长时间观测窗口，AMS解释道。

What makes the Taurids produce a greater stream of large fireballs compared with other meteor showers? One theory is that Comet Encke is a piece of what was once a "super-comet" that broke up in our solar system some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. The remains of this super comet (with average sizes ranging from pebbles to small stones) may account for the larger-than-normal fireballs that accompany the Taurids.

与其他流星雨相比，是什么让金牛座流星雨产生更大的火球流呢?有一种理论认为，恩克彗星是2万至3万年前在我们的太阳系中分裂的“超级彗星”的一部分。这颗超级彗星的残骸(平均大小从鹅卵石到小石头不等)可能解释了牛头星的火球比正常火球大的原因。

Despite their appearance blazing high above, Cooke revealed in a Reddit AMA that we've nothing to fear from these celestial fireworks.

尽管它们的外表在高空闪耀，但库克在Reddit AMA上表示，我们对这些天上的烟花没什么好怕的。

"The odds of a Taurid making it to the ground are small, but if one did make it, it would likely weigh less than a couple of kilograms," he wrote. "The damage caused by this would be very small (broken car window, etc.). Most people think meteorites are these smoking-hot rocks in the middle of a crater, when the truth is the exact opposite. By the time a meteorite hits ground, it is cool enough to handle, and unless it is really big, there is no crater produced."

他写道:“一只牛头犬成功着陆的几率很小，但如果成功着陆，它的重量可能还不到几公斤。”“由此造成的损失将是非常小的(打破车窗等)。大多数人认为陨星是火山口中央那些冒着烟的滚烫的岩石，而事实恰恰相反。当陨石撞击地面时，它已经冷却到足以处理，除非它真的很大，否则不会产生陨石坑。”

So bundle up, kick back and take in one of the best meteor showers of the year.

所以，穿得暖暖的，好好休息一下，欣赏一下今年最棒的流星雨吧。