Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Feb 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996em%26p...72....7m&link_type=abstract
Earth, Moon and Planets, Volume 72, Issue 1-3, pp. 7-12
Mathematics
Logic
1
Scientific paper
The Solar System oscillates about the plane defined by the disk of matter in our Galaxy. This oscillatory motion gives rise to a substantial modulation in the tidally induced flux of Oort cloud comets. An observational determination of the quasi-periodicity of this motion carries with it significant information about the population, distributions, dynamics and origins of short-period and long-period comets. An additional incentive for emphasizing such a study is the information about dark disk matter that a period can yield. If dark disk matter is completely negligible, the amplitude of the solar motion will be sufficiently large that the peak-to-trough flux ratio will be ≈ 2.5 and the plane-crossing period will exceed 40 Myr. Dark disk matter comparable in mass to bright disk matter and distributed in any manner is inconsistent with K-dwarf distributions and can be rejected as a working hypothesis. But if a modest fraction of the disk matter is dark and distributed like the interstellar medium, as is consistent with limits deduced from K-giant and K-dwarf velocity distributions, the peak-to-trough flux ratio can increase to a factor of 4 even though the solar z amplitude is decreased. In that case the period can be as little as 30 Myr and the implied Oort population is smaller by a factor of 3. We should carefully reconsider the geological record as a potential discriminator of these options.
Innanen Kimmo A.
Matese John J.
Valtonen Mauri J.
Whitman Patrick Gene
No associations
LandOfFree
Why We Study the Geological Record for Evidence of the Solar Oscillation about the Galactic Midplane 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 Why We Study the Geological Record for Evidence of the Solar Oscillation about the Galactic Midplane, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Why We Study the Geological Record for Evidence of the Solar Oscillation about the Galactic Midplane will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1154908