The Arietids are a strong meteor shower

Meteor shower

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...

 that lasts from May 22 to July 2 each year, and peaks on June 7. The Arietids, along with the Zeta Perseids

Zeta Perseids

Zeta Perseids is the name of a meteor shower.These meteors were discovered at Jodrell bank....

, are the most intense daylight meteor showers of the year. The source of the shower is unknown, but scientists suspect that they come from the asteroid 1566 Icarus

1566 Icarus

1566 Icarus is an Apollo asteroid that at perihelion comes closer to the Sun than Mercury, i.e. it is a Mercury-crossing asteroid. It is also a Venus and Mars-crosser. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun...

, although the orbit also corresponds similarly to 96P/Machholz

96P/Machholz

Comet 96P/Machholz or 96P/Machholz 1 is a short-period comet discovered on May 12, 1986 by amateur astronomer Donald Machholz in Loma Prieta, California. Comet 96P/Machholz will next come to perihelion on July 14, 2012....

.

First discovered at Jodrell Bank Observatory in England

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 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

Meteoroid

A meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, or colloquially a shooting star or falling star. If a meteoroid reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a meteorite...

 each hour, that originate in the sky from the constellation Aries

Aries (constellation)

Aries is one of the constellations of the zodiac, located between Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east. Its name is Latin for ram, and its symbol is , representing a ram's horns...

 and the constellation Perseus

Perseus (constellation)

Perseus is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the Greek hero Perseus. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union...

. 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. Some of the early meteors are visible in the very early hours of the morning, usually an hour before dawn. The meteors strike Earth's atmosphere at 39 km/s.