The Arietids meteor shower, as it’s name suggests, has its radiant in the constellation Aries. It lasts from late May till early July and peaks between the 7th and 8th of June. The meteoroids of this shower enter the atmosphere at speeds of about 38 kilometers per second, and are usually “earthgrazers”, meaning we see them hitting the atmosphere at a shallow angle, ploughing slowly right across the sky. But most interestingly of all, the Arietids are a daylight shower.
At this time of year, the constellation of Ares is only about 30 degrees ahead of the Sun, meaning that most meteors hit during the day. This of course makes them impossible to see, although there is a brief window (from about 45 minutes before sunrise) when it is still dark enough to see them. If you’re an early riser, and look towards where the Sun will soon be rising, you could see a spectacular fireball arcing across the sky in the dawn twilight.
The source of the Aietids has not been determined, although some astronomers think that it might be debris from the sungrazing asteroid 1566 Icarus.
Written by Allen Versfeld
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