Video links Taurid crossings to Pleiades flood legends; causation unproven

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Key facts

• Earth intersects the Taurid complex around June 30 and again in late October/early November; the Southern and Northern Taurids have separate peaks.
• The Taurids are named for Taurus, and their November radiants lie near the Hyades and Pleiades.
• Kima is the Hebrew name for the Pleiades. A Jewish legend concerns a missing seventh star associated with the Flood, but it is not evidence of a Taurid impact.
• The Pleiades are east of the meridian around midnight on October 31, not due south. The 'Royal Arch of the zodiac' is not a standard astronomical classification.
• Comet Encke was first observed by Pierre Méchain in 1786. Johann Encke linked it to the earlier observations in 1818, and its predicted 1819 return confirmed its roughly 3.3-year period. Encke is a principal parent of the Taurid complex, not the stream's namesake, and it is not the only active Apollo-type comet.
• Clube and colleagues proposed galactic-tide modulation and giant-comet fragmentation as links between the galaxy and terrestrial meteor streams; these are theoretical proposals rather than established mechanisms.
• Modern catalogues contain thousands of known Apollo asteroids, and estimates place the Apollo population larger than 1 km well above 2,000. The figure of fewer than 50 discovered is obsolete.

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