Arietids

Appearance of the eastern sky at 5:00 am on June 7, 2000 from a mid-northern latitude observing site.

The Arietids are a strong meteor shower that lasts from May 22 to July 2 each year, and peaks on June 7. The Arietids, along with the Zeta Perseids, are the most intense daylight meteor showers of the year.[1] The source of the shower is unknown, but scientists suspect that they come from the asteroid 1566 Icarus,[1][2] although the orbit also corresponds similarly to 96P/Machholz.[3]

First discovered at Jodrell Bank Observatory in England during the summer of 1947, the showers are caused when the Earth passes through a dense portion of two interplanetary meteoroid streams, producing an average of 60 shooting stars each hour, that originate in the sky from the constellation Aries and the constellation Perseus.[4] However, because both constellations are so close to the Sun when these showers reach their peak, the showers are difficult to view with the naked eye.[1] Some of the early meteors are visible in the very early hours of the morning, usually an hour before dawn.[5] The meteors strike Earth's atmosphere at speeds around 39 km/s.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 NASA (2000). "June's Invisible Meteors". NASA. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
  2. ↑ spaceweather.com. "Daylight Meteors: The Arietids". spaceweather.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
  3. ↑ Ohtsuka, Katsuhito; Nakano, Syuichi; Yohikawa, Makoto (Feb 2003). "On the Association among Periodic Comet 96P/Machholz, Arietids, the Marsden Comet Group, and the Kracht Comet Group.". Science Links Japan. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  4. ↑ Meteor Showers Online. "Arietids". Meteor Showers Online. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
  5. ↑ James Turley (1999). "Listen...to the Arietids!!". The Astronomy Connection. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
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