October 9-10: Southern Taurids meteor shower

The Taurids meteor shower comes in two different streams. The Southern Taurids are debris from Comet Encke, but the origin of the Northern Taurids is still debated. They could be a stream of dust grains left behind by an asteroid, though some scientists think they also came from Comet Encke, but were separated from the Southern Taurids by the distant gravitational pull of Jupiter. Still others think the whole field of debris came from the same giant comet, which disintegrated over the last 20,000 to 30,000 years.

In 2020, the Southern Taurids will peak about a month before the Northern stream.