The Taurid meteor showers peak a week apart in November

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The Taurid meteor showers peak a week apart in November

2024-11-03 22:00 Last Updated At：22:10

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two sister meteor showers are already flashing across night skies — and will peak a week apart.

The Southern Taurids will reach their zenith early Tuesday morning and the Northern Taurids on Nov. 12.

While the two showers only produce around five visible meteors per hour under ideal viewing conditions, they are often very bright fireballs, said Sally Brummel, planetarium manager at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum.

“What’s notable is that they’re likely to produce brighter and longer-lasting meteors than some other showers, even if there aren’t as many” at a time, she said.

The Southern Taurids will peak on an evening with only a slim crescent moon just 11% full. The Northern Taurids may be more obstructed by moonlight since the moon will be 79% full.

Viewing of both showers will last into December. Here’s what to know about the Taurids and other meteor showers.

Multiple meteor showers occur annually and you don’t need special equipment to see them.

Most meteor showers originate from the debris of comets. Both showers share the same parent source — originating from the debris of comet Encke.

When rocks from space enter Earth’s atmosphere, the resistance from the air makes them very hot. This causes the air to glow around them and briefly leaves a fiery tail behind them — the end of a “shooting star.”

The glowing pockets of air around fast-moving space rocks, ranging from the size of a dust particle to a boulder, may be visible in the night sky.

The two showers share similar names because, when seen in the night sky, they appear to originate from different points in the constellation Taurus.

Meteor showers are usually most visible between midnight and predawn hours.

It’s easier to see shooting stars under dark skies, away from city lights. Meteor showers also appear brightest on cloudless nights when the moon wanes smallest.

And your eyes will better adapted to seeing meteors if you aren’t checking your phone.

Not long after the Taurids, the next big meteor shower, the Leonids, will peak on the early morning of Nov. 17.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Montenegro mourns after gunman kills at least 12 people before shooting himself

2025-01-03 01:26 Last Updated At：01:31

CETINJE, Montenegro (AP) — Shock and dismay prevailed in Montenegro on Thursday after a gunman fatally shot 12 people, including two children, in a western town before killing himself.

At least four others were wounded in the shooting rampage in Cetinje on Wednesday that followed a bar brawl, officials said. This was the second such incident in the town in the past three years.

Police Commissioner Lazar Šćepanović described Wednesday’s shooting as “one of the biggest tragedies in the history of Montenegro.”

He said at a news conference that the victims included seven men, three women and two children, born in 2011 and 2016.

“Most of the victims were people he knew, his closest friends and relatives,” including the shooter’s sister, Šćepanović said. “This criminal act wasn’t planned or organized. It was unpredictable.”

The shooter, identified as 45-year-old Aco Martinović, killed the owner of the bar, the bar owner's children and his own family members, officials have said.

The attacker, who first fled after the rampage, was later located and surrounded by police. He died after shooting himself in the head, police said.

Residents of Cetinje, a town of some 17,000 people, were stunned and grief-stricken.

"I knew all of these people personally, also the attacker. I think when he did that, he was out of his mind," said Vesko Milošević, a retiree from Cetnje. "What do I know, he went from place to place and killed people. Its a catastrophe.”

Vanja Popović, whose relatives are among the victims, said that “we are all in shock.”

“How can I feel after this?" Popović said. "No one expected it. You can’t even ask anyone anything.”

Police had dispatched a special unit to search for the attacker in the town, which is located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of Podgorica, the country's capital. All roads in and out of Cetinje were blocked for hours as police swarmed the streets.

Police said that the shooter had died while being taken to a hospital in the capital and succumbed from the “severity of his injuries.”

Officials have said that the attacker was at the bar throughout the day with other guests when the brawl erupted. He then went home, brought back a weapon and opened fire at around 5:30 p.m.

Prosecutor Andrijana Nastić said Thursday that the attacker went to six locations during the shooting rampage, including the last one, where he shot himself.

Four men were killed at the bar, she said. The shooter then moved on to another location where he killed four more people, and then two children at a third site. He then went on to kill two more people at two other locations before eventually shooting himself, Nastić said.

“Further investigation will determine the exact circumstances of the events,” she added.

The government has declared three days of national mourning starting on Thursday, and all planned New Year's festivities have been canceled throughout the country.

Prime Minister Milojko Spajić said that the government may try to impose a total ban on weapons “because we must ask ourselves after this who should be allowed to have guns in Montenegro.”

The small Adriatic Sea nation, which has a population of around 620,000 people, is known for its gun culture and many people traditionally have weapons.

In August 2022 in Cetinje, which is Montenegro’s historic capital, an attacker killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot and killed by a passerby.

Police have said that the suspect in Wednesday's shooting received a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behavior and had appealed his latest conviction for illegal weapons possession. Montenegrin media have reported that he was known for erratic and violent behavior.

“Instead of holiday joy ... we have been gripped by sadness over the loss of innocent lives,” Montenegro's President Jakov Milatović said in a post on X.

Associated Press writers Jovana Gec and Dušan Stojanović contributed to this report from Belgrade, Serbia.

The Taurid meteor showers peak a week apart in November

TECH

The Taurid meteor showers peak a week apart in November

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