The young long-period comet family of Saturn

Details The young long-period comet family of Saturn The young long-period comet family of Saturn

Jul 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000mnras.315..517d&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 315, Issue 3, pp. 517-520.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

8

Celestial Mechanics, Stellar Dynamics, Comets: General, Planets And Satellites: Individual: Saturn, Planets And Satellites: Individual: Titan

Scientific paper

The distributions of long-period comets with respect to the minimum distance Δ between their orbits and the orbit of Saturn or Jupiter, constructed by Konopleva using data up to 1972, exhibit a sharp peak at Δ<0.5au for the Saturnian family, while being fairly monotonic for Jupiter. Hence, in view of the appreciable eccentricity of Saturn's orbit and the rotation of its perihelion longitude with a period of 47kyr, the conclusion was drawn by Drobyshevski that the objects belonging to this peak are young (<=10kyr). Similar distributions constructed using more recent data show less pronounced differences between one another. Analysis of the distributions for various epochs shows that the initially noted difference is due to observational selection, being inherent to brighter comets. Since on average the cometary activity fades with age, the conclusion that the Saturnian family comets, forming the peak at Δ<0.5au, are young is all the more substantiated. The question concerning the origin of these comets, which in all likelihood were ejected over a period of a decade from deep inside the Saturnian sphere of influence, is still open. The only self-consistent hypothesis that we see now is that of their appearance as a result of an explosion of the electrolysed ice envelope of Titan. We encourage the development of other explanations.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The young long-period comet family of Saturn does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The young long-period comet family of Saturn, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The young long-period comet family of Saturn will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1476621