Long-term evolution of Oort Cloud comets: capture of comets

Details Long-term evolution of Oort Cloud comets: capture of comets Long-term evolution of Oort Cloud comets: capture of comets

Jul 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002mnras.333..835n&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 333, Issue 4, pp. 835-846.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

4

Methods: Statistical, Celestial Mechanics, Comets: General, Oort Cloud, Solar System: General, Methods: Statistical, Celestial Mechanics, Comets: General, Oort Cloud, Solar System: General

Scientific paper

We test different possibilities for the origin of short-period comets captured from the Oort Cloud. We use an efficient Monte Carlo simulation method that takes into account non-gravitational forces, Galactic perturbations, observational selection effects, physical evolution and tidal splittings of comets. We confirm previous results and conclude that the Jupiter family comets cannot originate in the spherically distributed Oort Cloud, since there is no physically possible model of how these comets can be captured from the Oort Cloud flux and produce the observed inclination and Tisserand constant distributions. The extended model of the Oort Cloud predicted by the planetesimal theory consisting of a non-randomly distributed inner core and a classical Oort Cloud also cannot explain the observed distributions of Jupiter family comets. The number of comets captured from the outer region of the Solar system are too high compared with the observations if the inclination distribution of Jupiter family comets is matched with the observed distribution. It is very likely that the Halley-type comets are captured mainly from the classical Oort Cloud, since the distributions in inclination and Tisserand value can be fitted to the observed distributions with very high confidence. Also the expected number of comets is in agreement with the observations when physical evolution of the comets is included. However, the solution is not unique, and other more complicated models can also explain the observed properties of Halley-type comets. The existence of Jupiter family comets can be explained only if they are captured from the extended disc of comets with semimajor axes of the comets a<5000au. The original flattened distribution of comets is conserved as the cometary orbits evolve from the outer Solar system era to the observed region.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Long-term evolution of Oort Cloud comets: capture of comets 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 Long-term evolution of Oort Cloud comets: capture of comets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Long-term evolution of Oort Cloud comets: capture of comets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1660761