如何觀看今年的金牛座流星雨

如何觀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.

對涼爽的天氣和秋天的活動感到興奮嗎?一定要把一些戶外活動的熱情留給夜空。

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.

金牛座流星雨是一個相當長時間的事件，經(jīng)常在萬圣節(jié)和感恩節(jié)之間的幾周內(nèi)產(chǎn)生可見的火球，而且往往提供一個以上的高峰。2019年，金牛座的流星活動預計將在11月4日至11月12日之間的一周內(nèi)達到最高。與英仙座流星雨和獅子座流星雨等流星雨中的其他天體不同，金牛座流星雨的頻率并不像它們的明亮火球那樣出名。

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.

據(jù)美國國家航空航天局稱，金牛座流星雨的塵埃來自恩克彗星留下的碎片，以每小時6.5萬英里(10.4萬公里)的速度撞擊地球大氣層并燃燒，形成了金牛座流星雨。大多數(shù)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

何時何地去看

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.

金牛座流星雨包括兩股從恩克彗星上分離出來的流星雨。根據(jù)美國流星協(xié)會(AMS)的數(shù)據(jù)，南金牛座是兩股氣流中較強的，在持續(xù)期間有三個淺層高峰:10月10日左右、11月1日和11月15日。北牛頭峰在11月3日左右，正是這種重疊的連續(xù)沖擊造成了11月初的長時間觀測窗口，AMS解釋道。

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.

與其他流星雨相比，是什么讓金牛座流星雨產(chǎn)生更大的火球流呢?有一種理論認為，恩克彗星是2萬至3萬年前在我們的太陽系中分裂的“超級彗星”的一部分。這顆超級彗星的殘骸(平均大小從鵝卵石到小石頭不等)可能解釋了牛頭星的火球比正?；鹎虼蟮脑?。

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

盡管它們的外表在高空閃耀，但庫克在Reddit AMA上表示，我們對這些天上的煙花沒什么好怕的。

"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."

他寫道:“一只牛頭犬成功著陸的幾率很小，但如果成功著陸，它的重量可能還不到幾公斤。”“由此造成的損失將是非常小的(打破車窗等)。大多數(shù)人認為隕星是火山口中央那些冒著煙的滾燙的巖石，而事實恰恰相反。當隕石撞擊地面時，它已經(jīng)冷卻到足以處理，除非它真的很大，否則不會產(chǎn)生隕石坑。”

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，欣賞一下今年最棒的流星雨吧。