Taurid Fireball

On the morning of 2015 Nov 8, a bright Taurid meteor is photographed next to an Acacia tree in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya. In fact November’s Taurid meteor showers displayed a high proportion of bright fireballs in 2015. The meteors are caused by our fair planet’s annual passage through debris from Comet 2P/Encke. The comet’s dust grains are catching up with Earth’s atmosphere at a relatively low speed of about 27 kilometers per second. Click the second photo to see a wider angle view of this scene.