Biela (comet)

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3D / Biela [i]
Comet 3P / Biela in February 1846
Properties of the orbit
Orbit type short-term
Numerical eccentricity 0.751
Perihelion 0.879 AU
Aphelion 6,190 AU
Major semi-axis 3.535 AU
Sidereal period 6 a 236 d
Inclination of the orbit plane 13.216 °
Perihelion September 24, 1852
Orbital velocity in the perihelion 42.04 km / s
Physical properties of the core
Medium diameter ?
history
Explorer W. v. Biela
Date of discovery February 27, 1826
Older name -
Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles .

The comet Biela (official name 3D / Biela ) is a periodic comet named after Wilhelm Freiherr von Biela . The "D" in its name stands for the English "disappeared" ("disappeared") and indicates that the comet no longer exists after it broke up in 1846 and then apparently completely dissolved. Biela was the first comet in the history of comet research that was observed to split.

discovery

The comet was discovered as a small, rounded nebula on February 27, 1826 by the Austrian officer and amateur astronomer Wilhelm von Biela in Josefstadt (Josefov, today part of Jaroměř , German Jermer) in northern Bohemia . Biela also succeeded in determining the orbit that showed that the nebula was a short-period comet with an orbital period of about 6.6 years . In addition, it was subsequently recognized that it was the same comet that had been discovered by Jacques Leibax Montaigne and Charles Messier in 1772 and by Jean-Louis Pons in 1805 . The fact that it was not seen every time the sun was close was due to unfavorable positions to the earth and sun. He was also unobserved in 1833 and 1839.

After Halley's Comet , Olber's Comet (13P / Olbers, 1815) and Encke's Comet (1815), Biela was only the fourth comet to be recognized as periodic.

Orbit

The orbit of the comet Biela was in the shape of an elongated ellipse , the point closest to the sun ( perihelion ) lying just inside the earth's orbit . The point furthest from the sun ( aphelion ) was slightly outside the orbit of the planet Jupiter , which made it a short-period comet of the Jupiter family . The orbit was inclined around 13 ° to the ecliptic .

history

The comet returned as predicted in 1832, where it was first sighted by John Herschel on September 24th .

It was the first year in human history that two periodic comets were announced. Only four were known, three of which were only recognized as such between 1815 and 1826. Biela should have its second return in October 1832 and cross the earth's orbit at 2½ times the earth's diameter (but one month before the earth came to this point). So there was some excitement and even better papers speculated about a collision or at least some tail impact. Floods and cholera were also feared. At the end of January 1833, the Wiener Theaterzeitung reported on the fears. Unsuspecting authors mixed this comet with Encke's comet (expected in early summer 1832 and summer 1835) and the much more famous Halley's comet (expected in October 1835) and spread their arrival between 1830 and 1836 as they saw fit. The mood in the comet song was with the Refrain “The world is definitely not going to stand long”, which was premiered in April 1833 with the farce Der böse Geist Lumpazivagabundus by Johann Nestroy .

At the turn of the year 1845/1846, astronomers were able to observe how the comet broke into two parts that were slowly moving apart. In March 1846 the distance between the two fragments, which both formed a short tail , had already increased to 300,000 kilometers. Both parts could also be observed when the comet next returned in 1852; their distance had already grown to 2.5 million kilometers, which required a drifting apart at 40–50 km / h.

The comet's return was predicted for 1859 and 1865, but the comet could not be found again. The search for the comet was also unsuccessful in 1872, but on November 27th - the day on which the earth crossed the comet's orbit - a meteor shower with up to 3000 falling stars per hour was observed: Apparently it was the Meteoroids around the remains of the now completely dissolved celestial body. The meteor shower known as Bieliden (also Andromediden ) could also be observed again in 1885, 1892 and 1899, but its intensity steadily decreased. After that, the Bieliden did not appear again.

During the meteor shower on November 27, 1885, the Mazapil meteorite fell in northern Mexico . This iron meteorite was therefore initially thought to be a fragment of Comet Biela. Today, however, it is assumed that the fall of the meteorite during the Bieliden shower was nothing more than a coincidence.

The orbit of a faint comet with the official name P / 2001 J1 (NEAT) , which was discovered on May 11, 2001 by the sky surveillance Near Earth Asteroid Tracking , is similar to that of comet Biela. It is unclear, however, whether it is actually a fragment of the lost comet Biela or whether the similarity is just coincidental.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K.Wurm, Die Kometen . Understandable Science Volume 53, Springer-Verlag Berlin-Heidelberg 1954
  2. ↑ Carl Ludwig von Littrow : Contributions to a monograph of Halley's Comet . On the occasion of its appearance in 1835, commonly represented. Heinrich Friedrich Müller, Vienna 1834, p. 7–8 ( online in Google Book Search [accessed December 21, 2012]).
  3. ^ Gary W. Kronk : 3D / Biela . Cometography. Retrieved December 15, 2010.
  4. ↑ Theaterzeitung No. 21/1833, p. 84
  5. ^ Joseph Johann Littrow : About the dreaded comet of the current year 1832 . and about comets in general. Carl Gerold, Vienna April 1832 ( online in the Google book search [accessed December 21, 2012]).
  6. ↑ Carl Ludwig von Littrow : Contributions to a monograph of Halley's Comet . On the occasion of its appearance in 1835 represented in the public domain. Heinrich Friedrich Müller, Vienna 1834, p. 1–11 ( online in Google Book Search [accessed December 21, 2012]).
  7. ^ Johann Nestroy: Complete Works (Nestroy, Johann) . Ed .: Friedrich Walla. tape 5 . Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1993, ISBN 978-3-224-16924-1 , p. 315-316 (With quotations from Fischer and the Littrows).
  8. ^ Martin Beech: The Mazapil meteorite: From paradigm to periphery . In: Meteoritics & Planetary Science . 37, May 2002, pp. 649-660. bibcode : 2002M & PS ... 37..649B . doi : 10.1111 / j.1945-5100.2002.tb00845.x .

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