Residents across Beijing witnessed a brilliant multicolored fireball streak across the night sky on November 6, as recorded by personal cell phones and vehicle dashboard cameras. Zhu Jin, ex direttore del Planetario di Pechino, confirmed the celestial event was caused by a sporadic meteor that may have left physical fragments behind. The spectacular event occurred on the local evening of Friday, November 6, lighting up the night sky over Beijing, China, while leaving residents astonished as the bright meteor traversed the skies and illuminated the clouds for between two and five seconds.
The luminous phenomenon appeared in the southwestern sky, carving a path at an inclined trajectory of roughly 30 degrees.
The South Taurids Meteor Shower Context
The fiery spectacle coincides with the active window of the Southern Taurids meteor shower, which runs from September through November 20 and produces about five meteors per hour while being visible from almost anywhere in the world except the South Pole. Meteors belonging to this specific stream enter Earth’s atmosphere at a velocity of roughly 104,607 kilometers per hour.
Bill Cooke, responsabile del Meteoroid Environment Office della NASA, notes that the Taurids are widely recognized for generating striking fireballs. While they do not produce dense hourly rates, individual sightings often leave remarkably vivid trails that linger in the upper atmosphere, prompting him to state, Ciò che rende le Tauridi spettacolari è la loro ricchezza di brillanti palle di fuoco
and Non sono molto numerose, ma quando ne vedi una, non la dimentichi più: lascia una scia luminosissima nel cielo
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| Meteor Shower | Active Window | Peak Period | Comet Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Taurids | September – Nov 20, 2026 | November 4–5, 2026 | 2P/Encke |
| Northern Taurids | Mid-October – Dec 10, 2026 | November 12, 2026 | 2P/Encke |
Comet Debris Creates Bright Atmospheric Fireballs
Meteors and fireballs form when orbiting comets and asteroids shed ice and rock fragments along their paths. When Earth intersects these debris fields, the particles burn up upon atmospheric entry. While most burn out as microscopic dust, larger debris ranging from pebble to boulder size creates high-intensity fireballs capable of outshining Venus, sometimes leaving ionized air molecule trails that vanish after a few seconds or vapor-like cloud trails remaining visible for several minutes.
The Southern Taurids derive from comet 2P/Encke, which holds the shortest known orbital period in the solar system at approximately 3.3 years. Following the recent peak between November 4 and 5, stargazers anticipate a secondary peak from the Northern Taurids stream around November 12, with activity extending through December 10, as detailed by meteoweb.eu.
