WASHINGTON, USA, Oct. 12, 2026 - The Southern Taurid meteor shower peaks on the night of 13 October, with slow, bright meteors visible from around midnight.^[1] The shower runs from September to November, with a first peak around 14 October.^[2] The bigger show comes a week later. The Orionid meteor shower peaks on the night of 21 October into the early morning of 22 October,^[3][4] when NASA says up to 20 meteors an hour can be seen under ideal, dark skies.^[5] From suburban areas, NASA estimates three to six an hour.^[6] The Orionids are grains of dust and debris left by Halley's Comet, which Earth passes through every October.^[7] They hit the atmosphere at about 66 km per second.^[8] The shower is active from 2 October to 7 November,^[9] though moonlight will make this year's peak harder to see.^[10] How to watch. No equipment is needed. Find a dark spot away from city lights, give your eyes about 20 minutes to adjust, and watch a wide area of sky. Orionid meteors seem to come from the constellation Orion but can appear anywhere; the best hours are after midnight until dawn. Taurid meteors are slower and sometimes produce bright fireballs. Impact Insight. Meteor showers happen when Earth crosses streams of dust shed by comets, and most shower meteors are grains smaller than a pea that burn up high in the atmosphere. The link to planetary defense is direct: the camera networks that record shower meteors also catch the rarer, larger fireballs that help scientists estimate how often bigger objects strike Earth.