Skip to content
Biela's Comet

File:CometBiela.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ857320· pop 39· linked from 607 articles

Biela's Comet

Sign in to save

Comet that dissolved and assumed as gone

Key facts

Discovered by
Wilhelm von Biela , (recognition of periodicity )
Discovery date
27 February 1826
Mpc designation
D/1772 E1, D/1826 D1 D/1832 S1
Alternative designations
1772, 1806 I, 1832 III 1846 II, 1852 III
Epoch
29 September 1852 ( JD 2397760.5)
Observation arc
~80 years
Earliest precovery date
8 March 1772
Aphelion
6.190 AU
Perihelion
0.8606 AU
Semi major axis
3.5253 AU
Orbital period
6.619 years
Inclination
12.550°
Last perihelion
23 September 1852 (A), 24 September 1852 (B)
Next perihelion
Disintegrated
Earth moid
0.0005 AU (75,000 km), (Epoch 1832)
Mean diameter
≈0.5 km (0.31 mi) , (pre-breakup)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Parent body
Sun
Child body
Andromedids
Orbital period
2427.278122182916
Image
CometBiela.jpg
Show 15 more facts
Commons category
Comet Biela
discoverer or inventor
Baron Wilhelm von Biela
described by source
The Nuttall Encyclopædia
time of discovery or invention
1826-02-27
provisional designation
1772
absolute magnitude
7.1
orbital eccentricity
0.751299
periapsis
0.879073
apoapsis
6.190243166802708
orbital inclination
13.2164
longitude of ascending node
250.669
argument of periapsis
221.6588
time of periapsis
2390514.1152
semi-major axis of an orbit
3.53465808340135
mean anomaly
0.9469569963959761
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Biela's Comet or Comet Biela (official designation: 3D/Biela) was a periodic Jupiter-family comet first recorded in 1772 by Montaigne and Messier and finally identified as periodic in 1826 by Wilhelm von Biela. It was subsequently observed to split in two and has not been seen since 1852. As a result, it is currently considered to have been destroyed. Remnants have survived as a meteor shower, the Andromedids.

The comet was first recorded on 8 March 1772 by Jacques Leibax Montaigne; During the same apparition, it was independently discovered by Charles Messier. The comet was also recorded in 1805 by Jean-Louis Pons, but was not recognized as the same object at the time.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Biela's Comet” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)