THE TAURID METEOR SHOWER IS UNDERWAY: Last night in Arizona, a piece of Comet Encke burned up over Tucson. Hitting the atmosphere at 65,000 mph, the meteoroid flashed twice before it completely disintegrated ~60 km above the ground.

Eliot Herman's all-sky meteor camera recorded the fireball: [link to spaceweathergallery.com]

Indeed, every year in early November, Earth passes through a broad stream of debris from Comet Encke. The resulting drizzle of meteors emerging from the horns of Taurus is remarkable, not for its quantity, because Taurid meteor rates tend to be low, but rather for its luminosity. Comet Encke produces fireballs--meteors so bright that they can cast shadows on the ground.

[link to spaceweather.com]