Oort-Cloud and Kuiper-Belt comets

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

3

Scientific paper

This is a study of the magnitude variation of 93 Kuiper-Belt (KB) comets of short period and 77 Oort-Cloud (OC) comets, including 14 Halley-type. Two criteria of their activity show consistently that the Kuiper-Belt comets are more active at large solar distances than the Oort-Cloud comets. This result is consistent with the expectation that the KB comets were formed at lower temperatures, farther from the Sun, than the OC comets, and contain more ices that can freeze only at lower temperatures. The result is supported by the fact that the comets in the oldest KB age class act like the OC comets, suggesting that the cores of very old KB comets have been heated by radioactivity and lost their more volatile ices, most of the remaining ice being water ice. The degree to which spectroscopic data by A'Hearn et al. (/1995. Icarus 118, 223-270) support the result of this study is discussed.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Oort-Cloud and Kuiper-Belt 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 Oort-Cloud and Kuiper-Belt comets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Oort-Cloud and Kuiper-Belt comets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-892168

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.