Perihelion point preferred direction of long-period comets and the north-south asymmetry of comet discoveries from the Earth's surface.

Details Perihelion point preferred direction of long-period comets and the north-south asymmetry of comet discoveries from the Earth's surface. Perihelion point preferred direction of long-period comets and the north-south asymmetry of comet discoveries from the Earth's surface.

Feb 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996a%26a...306..981n&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.306, p.981

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

8

Comets: General

Scientific paper

In the past, several astronomers have sought a preferred direction in the distribution of the perihelia of long-period comet orbits. In this paper, we concentrate on a strong observational bias, the non-uniform distribution of comet discoveries from the Earth's surface, which influences the resultant preferred direction of perihelion points. More comets have been discovered from the northern than the southern Earth's hemisphere. Consequently, the declination of the determined preferred direction is shifted toward the north. This north-south asymmetry of comet discoveries can be compensated, in part at least, if we assign such weights to the comets that the summary weight of the comets discovered from the north hemisphere is equal to the summary weight of those discovered from the south hemisphere. If the preferred direction of perihelion points is determined in this way, then the coherence between it and the solar apex, determined by several authors earlier, disappears. Moreover, as the north-south asymmetry in the discoveries from the Earth's surface gradually decreases also the statistical significance of the departure from randomness in the distribution of perihelion point directions gradually decreases, and finally becomes questionable. It appears to be very probable that the distribution of the directions of perihelion points of long-period comets is completely random.

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