English news for Thursday, October 8, 2026

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the country's national center for studying the sky, has explained a meteor shower^*1 called the October Draconids. It is also called the Giacobinids. The shower can be seen from October 6 to October 10 every year. Its peak^*2 is around October 9.

The shooting stars in this shower come from a comet^*3 called Comet Giacobini-Zinner. This comet comes back about every 6.5 years.

Some years are much bigger than others. In Japan, in 1985 and in 1998, people saw about 100 shooting stars in one hour. In the other years, when the comet does not come back, the shower is small. Even in those years, experienced sky watchers see a few shooting stars every hour. At the peak, the ZHR^*4 of this shower is 5.

1. *1 meteor shower: a time when many shooting stars can be seen in the night sky
2. *2 peak: the time when the most shooting stars appear
3. *3 comet: a ball of ice and dust that travels around the sun and sometimes has a long bright tail
4. *4 ZHR: a number that tells how many shooting stars one person could see in one hour under a very dark and clear sky

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a group of weather scientists from around the world, gave a new report on October 8, 2026. The report looks at the weather of the oceans from October to December 2026. It says that El Niño will become even stronger in the next months.

El Niño is a time when the water in the Pacific Ocean, near the middle of the Earth, is warmer than usual. The scientists use many computer models^*1 to see what the ocean will do. Almost all the models say the same thing: El Niño will grow stronger. Because the models agree so well, the scientists are quite sure about this. In one key part of the Pacific Ocean, the sea surface^*2 will be about 3.7 degrees Celsius warmer than normal. This is the average^*3 for October to December. The water will be warmest around December.

The report also talks about other oceans. In the Indian Ocean, the water on one side is warmer than the water on the other side. This is called a positive Indian Ocean Dipole. It was strongest in October, and now it is getting weaker. Its average for the season^*4 is about 0.5 degrees Celsius. The tropical^*5 part of the Atlantic Ocean will stay warmer than normal in the coming months.

1. *1 computer models: computer programs that try to work out what the weather or the sea will do in the future
2. *2 sea surface: the top of the sea water, where the sea meets the air
3. *3 average: the middle number when you add many numbers together and share them out equally
4. *4 season: a part of the year, here the months from October to December
5. *5 tropical: in the hot part of the world near the middle of the Earth