Every year, the Taurid meteor shower lights up the night sky from late October through early November. Sometimes called the "Halloween fireballs", they are named for the constellation Taurus—the bull—from which the meteors appear to radiate, the shower is best viewed from dark-sky locations. In New Mexico, where wide-open spaces and low light pollution offer some of the clearest skies in the country, stargazers have a front-row seat to the spectacle.
Meteors are flashes and streaks of light that appear when dust, pebbles and rocks burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere. These fragments come from Comet Encke, which has left a trail of debris orbiting the sun. Twice a year, this stream intersects with Earth's orbit—once around Halloween, when the Taurids are visible at night, and again in June, during the daytime. The June meteors, known as the Beta Taurids, can't be seen in the daytime sky unless they are exceptionally bright fireballs.
But what would happen if much larger Taurids came a little too close to Earth?
