* Astronomy

Title: Origin and Evolution of Short-Period Comets
Author: D. Nesvorny, D. Vokrouhlicky, L. Dones, H. F. Levison, N. Kaib, A. Morbidelli

Comets are icy objects that orbitally evolve from the trans-Neptunian region (the Kuiper belt and beyond) into the inner Solar System, where they are heated by solar radiation and become active due to sublimation of water ice. Here we perform end-to-end simulations in which cometary reservoirs are formed in the early Solar System and evolved over 4.5 Gyr. The gravitational effects of Planet 9 (P9), hypothesized to circle the Sun on a wide orbit, are included in some of our simulations. Different models are considered for comets to be active, including a simple assumption that comets remain active for Np(q) perihelion passages with perihelion distance q1000 is required to obtain a steady-state population of large active HTCs that is consistent with observations. To fit the ratio of the returning-to-new OCCs, by contrast, our model implies that Np(2.5)<10, possibly because the detected long-period comets are smaller and much easier to disrupt than observed HTCs.

Read more (7584kb, PDF)