Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Oct 1986
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986a%26a...167..359d&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 167, Oct. 1986, p. 359-363.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
35
Comets, Elliptical Orbits, Magnitude, Mass Distribution, Mass Flow, Maximum Likelihood Estimates, Perihelions, Statistical Analysis
Scientific paper
The distribution of magnitudes for both long period (P greater than 200 yr) and short period comets (P less than 200 yr) were analyzed using a maximum likelihood method. The brightness (magnitude) index for long period comets with absolute magnitude H(10) less than or equal to 6 mag, and for short period comets with H(10) less than or equal to 11 mag were estimated together with the large sample errors and confidence intervals. This method suffers none of the major defects of the least squares linear regression method used by previous authors. The brightness index for the long period comets was found to be 0.71 + or - 0.05 while that for the short period comets was 0.45 + or - 0.06. Translating into a mass distribution an index of 1.71 + or - 0.05 was found for long period comets and 1.45 + or - 0.06 for the short period comets. It is suggested that accretion is the most likely process to have produced both distributions, though the short period comet distribution has probably been substantially altered by mass loss processes during perihelion passage.
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