The Andromedids meteor shower is known for the meteor storm
displays on November 27th, 1872, and 1885. Ther relate to the
breakup of comet Beila. Today only a few Andromedids can be seen each year.
A comet is a dirty snowball traveling around the Sun, it
leaves a trail of dust behind it. When the Earth passes through such a dust
trail, we see lots of meteors or shooting stars as some people call them. This is a meteor shower. When we see 1,000s
of meteors it becomes a meteor storm.
A meteor shower is named after the constellation in the sky
from where all the meteors appear to radiate from.
The term shooting star is misleading because they have
nothing whatsoever to do with stars, they are simply grains of dust burning up
as the enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Comet Biela had bee seen as far back as 1772, but it was
only in 1826 that the astronomer Wilhelm von Biela realised that the comet
returned to our part of the solar system every 6.5 years. Due to this
observation the comet was named after him.
The comet was seen in 1832 but was missed due to a series of
events in 1839. When it next returned in 1846 it was seen to have split into
two pieces. This was totally unexpected, and it took astronomers totally by
surprise.
Comet Biela was next seen in 1852 in two parts only further
apart than in 1846. This was the last time that comet Belia was seen. When it
should have returned in 1859 and 1865 nothing could be seen. It had just
disappeared.
Then on November 27th, 1872, there was a
tremendous meteor storm with around 400 meteors per minute or 24,000 meteors
per hour. Today a spectacular meteor shower such as the Perseid or Geminid might produce between 80-100 meteors per hour.
This might give an indication of how impressive the meteor storm must
have seemed. I am sure that many people would have been worried and scared by
what they saw.
The there was nothing for the next few years, however on
November 27th, 1885, another storm occurred with around 100 meteors
per minute or 6,000 per hour being seen. Since then, virtually no Andromedids
have been seen.
The conclusion that was reached by astronomers was that
comet Biela had simply just broke up and as the Earth passed through the stream
of dust that was all that was left of the comet people were treated to a
wonderful cosmic display of streak of light in the sky.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk