The breakup of a comet and meteor storms in 1872 and 1885.

The Andromedids meteor shower is known for the meteor storm displays on November 27^th, 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 27^th, 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 27^th, 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.

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