Using Known Long-Period Comets to Constrain the Inner Oort Cloud and Comet Shower Bombardment

Details Using Known Long-Period Comets to Constrain the Inner Oort Cloud and Comet Shower Bombardment Using Known Long-Period Comets to Constrain the Inner Oort Cloud and Comet Shower Bombardment

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dda....40.0504k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #40, #5.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.898

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The inner Oort Cloud is a huge theorized reservoir of km-sized icy bodies orbiting the Sun between 1,000 and 20,000 AU. Because long-period comets (LPCs) observed near Earth are traditionally believed to originate in the outer Oort Cloud (beyond 20,000 AU), the size of the inner cloud population has been considered unconstrained by LPC observations. Through numerical modeling we demonstrate that at least 50% of known Earth-crossing LPCs actually do come from the inner Oort Cloud via an overlooked dynamical pathway, and using known LPC observations, we place an upper limit on the inner Oort Cloud population that is consistent with mass requirements of outer planet formation models. This inner Oort Cloud population size controls the intensity of comet showers induced by rare close stellar passages and determines whether terrestrial impacts associated with these phenomena are a plausible cause of mass extinctions seen in the fossil record. Because the observed production rate of LPCs permits only a rather anemic inner Oort Cloud, the comet shower impact hazard to Earth's biosphere is inconsequential.

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