About 3D/Biela
3D/Biela is a rare comet. It swings within 0.879 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
Rare comet 37 EP
3D/Biela
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit +18
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Jupiter-family comet +5
Total score 37
13 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Jupiter-family comet · +5
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit · +18
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.88 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 6.6 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.88 and 6.19 AU from the Sun.
Standing on it
- Growing a tail. Once inside roughly the orbit of Mars the ice starts turning straight to gas, blowing out the coma and tail that make a comet a comet.
- Tail. Its tail always points away from the Sun, never trailing behind its motion — it is blown, not dragged.
By the numbers
- Made of. A comet is a dirty snowball: water ice, frozen carbon dioxide and dust, held together loosely enough that some simply crumble when the Sun warms them.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 6.19
- designation
- 3D
- eccentricity
- 0.7513
- full name
- 3D/Biela
- inclination
- 13.22
- mean motion deg day
- 0.1483
- moid au
- 0.0005
- name
- 3D/Biela
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFc
- perihelion au
- 0.879
- semi major au
- 3.535
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 3D/Biela is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. Because it moves against the background stars, the live position panel on this page tracks where it is right now. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why 3D/Biela is a rare comet
3D/Biela scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Has a proper name, Jupiter-family comet and Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.