The Scattered Disk as a Source of Halley-Type Comets

Details The Scattered Disk as a Source of Halley-Type Comets The Scattered Disk as a Source of Halley-Type Comets

May 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004dda....35.0611l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #35, #06.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 36, p.858

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We will describe a new dynamical mechanism for producing Halley-type comets from the scattered disk of comets. Levison & Duncan (1997) and Duncan & Levison (1997) showed that a significant number of objects leave the scattered disk by evolving to semi-major axes greater than 1000 AU. We find that once these objects reach semi-major axes on the order of 104 AU, a significant fraction immediately have their perihelia driven inward by the Galactic tides. Approximately 0.01% of these objects evolve onto orbits similar to the observed Halley-like comets due to gravitational interactions with the giant planets. The orbital element distribution resulting from this process is statistically consistent with observations. In order for the scattered disk to supply all the known HTCs, it must contain roughly 5 billion comet-sized objects.
This research was supported by NASA's Origins and PGG programs.

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