The variation of short-period comet size and decay rate with perihelion distance

Out of over 200 known short-period comets, we analyse a self-consistent list of 105 comets which have accurately estimated nuclei radii. It is found that both the median size and the size distribution index of these comets vary as a function of the perihelion distance, q , of the cometary orbit. A value of   q ≈ 2.7 au  divides the comets into an outer solar system group which are hardly affected by decay, and an inner solar system group which are decaying quickly. It is estimated that 10, 20 and 30 per cent of the 105 comets will have decayed away after 1000, 2000 and 3000 yr, respectively.     

Accumulation processes in the primitive solar nebula

Particle accumulation processes are discussed for a variety of physical environments, ranging from the collapse phase of an interstellar cloud to the different parts of the models of the primitive solar nebula constructed by Cameron and Pine. Because of turbulence in the collapsing interstellar gas, it is concluded that interstellar grains accumulate into bodies with radii of a few tens of centimeters before the outer parts of the solar nebula are formed. These bodies can descend quite rapidly through the gas toward midplane of the nebula, and accumulation to planetary size can occur in a few thousand years. Substantial modifications of these processes take place in the outer convection zone of the solar nebula, but again it is concluded that bodies in that zone can grow to planetary size in a few thousand years.From the discussion of the interstellar collapse phase it is concluded that the angular momentum of the primitive solar nebula was predominantly of random turbulent origin, and that it is plausible that the primitive solar nebula should have possessed satellite nebulae in highly elliptical orbits. It is proposed that the comets were formed in these satellite nebulae.A number of other detailed conclusions are drawn from the analysis. It is shown to be plausible that an iron-rich planet should be formed in the inner part of the outer nebular convection zone. Discussions are given of the processes of planetary gas accretion, the formation of satellites, the T Tauri solar wind, and the dissipation of excess condensed material after the nebular gases have been removed by the T Tauri solar wind. It is shown that the present radial distances of the planets (but not Bode's Law) should be predicted reasonably well by a solar nebula model intermediate between the uniform and linear cases of Cameron and Pine.     

Organics-glued dust aggregates in Halley's coma and some implications of the snow line inward motion for the formation of comets

In view of the solar nebula models, organics-glued dust aggregates (whose disintegration resulted in the two phenomena found in Halley's coma, the dust boundary and small-scale dust structures) originated due to coagulation of iceless dust particles somewhere within the snow line, and then were incorporated into Halley's nucleus as a consequence of the snow line inward motion. This implies that two types of comets exist: outer comets, formed entirely beyond the snow line, and inner comets, similar to Halley, which are bodies intermediate between outer comets and primitive asteroids. The presence of large iceless dust aggregates in nuclei of inner comets constrains the inward drift velocity of meter-sized dust bodies, which in turn implies that the radial transport of water in the solar nebula was predominantly outward. It is shown that in nuclei of inner comets: both the upper mass limit of iceless dust aggregates and the ice mantle thickness increase with decreasing formation heliocentric distance, while the cumulative mass distribution index decreases; the lower limit of the mass index is ∼0.8, and the upper limit of the ice mantle thickness is ∼10⁻³ cm (∼200 times the interstellar value); the lower limit of the latent heat of organics in organic mantles of submicron particles increases toward small heliocentric distances; the recondensation of organics combined with the growth of dust bodies leads to a fractionation of organics within iceless dust aggregates; last accreted sub-units of an aggregate are always glued by organics with the lowest value of the latent heat, which somewhat exceeds 60 kJ/mol. Based on in situ observations at Halley, the parameters characterizing iceless dust aggregates in that comet are calculated. Finally, feasible observational tests of the conclusions drawn are discussed.     

Relationship of comets and planets

We analyze our earlier data on the numerical integration of the equations of motion for 274 short-period comets (with the period P<200 yr) on a time interval of 6000 yr. As many as 54 comets had no close approaches to planets, 13 comets passed through the Saturnian sphere of action, and one comet passed through the Uranian sphere of action. The orbital elements of these 68 comets changed by no more than ±3 percent in a space of 6000 yr. As many as 206 comets passed close to Jupiter. We confirm Everhart’s conclusion that Jupiter can capture long-period comets with q = 4–6 AU and i < 9° into short-period orbits. We show that nearly parabolic comets cross the solar system mainly in the zone of terrestrial planets. No relationship of nearly parabolic comets and terrestrial planets was found for the epoch of the latest apparition of comets. Guliev’s conjecture about two trans-Plutonian planets is based on the illusory excess of cometary nodes at large heliocentric distances. The existence of cometary nodes at the solar system periphery turns out to be a solely geometrical effect.     

A note on the total mass of comets in the solar system

The assumption that the very low albedo determined for Halley's comet is typical of all short period comets, taken together with the assumption that the average sizes of long and short period comets are approximately equal, leads to an increase in the total mass of comets in the solar system by almost two orders of magnitude. If gravitational ejection from the Uranus - Neptune zone during the later phases of planet formation is indeed responsible for the classical Oort cloud between 10⁴–10¹⁵ AU, then the mass of comets in this transplanetary region during cosmogonie times has to exceed the combined masses of Uranus and Neptune by over an order of magnitude. Furthermore, if the recent arguments for as many as 10¹⁴ comets in an inner Oort cloud between ~40– 10⁴AU are valid, then the total mass of comets in the solar system approaches 2% of a solar mass.     

Source regions and timescales for the delivery of water to the Earth

Abstract— In the primordial solar system, the most plausible sources of the water accreted by the Earth were in the outer asteroid belt, in the giant planet regions, and in the Kuiper Belt. We investigate the implications on the origin of Earth's water of dynamical models of primordial evolution of solar system bodies and check them with respect to chemical constraints. We find that it is plausible that the Earth accreted water all along its formation, from the early phases when the solar nebula was still present to the late stages of gas‐free sweepup of scattered planetesimals. Asteroids and the comets from the Jupiter‐Saturn region were the first water deliverers, when the Earth was less than half its present mass. The bulk of the water presently on Earth was carried by a few planetary embryos, originally formed in the outer asteroid belt and accreted by the Earth at the final stage of its formation. Finally, a late veneer, accounting for at most 10% of the present water mass, occurred due to comets from the Uranus‐Neptune region and from the Kuiper Belt. The net result of accretion from these several reservoirs is that the water on Earth had essentially the D/H ratio typical of the water condensed in the outer asteroid belt. This is in agreement with the observation that the D/H ratio in the oceans is very close to the mean value of the D/H ratio of the water inclusions in carbonaceous chondrites.     

The out of ecliptic distribution of interplanetary dust and its relation to other bodies in the solar system

We discuss the out-of-ecliptic component of the interplanetary dust cloud and its relation to the other small bodies in the solar system. The determination of the mass loss of comets, so far is quite uncertain and doesn't allow a finite study of the mass input to the dust cloud. However it is shown, that the dust particles in the inner solar system, i.e. within the earth orbit are most probable produced from a collisional evolution of larger, meteoroid, fragments of cometary origin. A further component of interstellar dust is especially important in the outer solar system and perhaps for the collisional evolution of the small bodies.     

Embedded star clusters and the formation of the Oort cloud: II. The effect of the primordial solar nebula

This paper deals with Oort cloud formation while the Sun was in an embedded cluster and surrounded by its primordial nebula. This work is a continuation of Brasser et al. [Brasser, R., Duncan, M., Levison, H., 2006. Icarus 184, 59-82], building on the model presented therein, and adding the aerodynamic drag and gravitational potential of the primordial solar nebula. Results are presented of numerical simulations of comets subject to the gravitational influence of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, star cluster and primordial solar nebula; some of the simulations included the gravitational influence of Uranus and Neptune as well. The primordial solar nebula was approximated by the minimum-mass Hayashi model [Hayashi, C., Nakozawa, K., Nakagawa, Y., 1985. In: Black, D.C., Matthews, M.S. (Eds.). Protostars and Planets II. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ] whose inner and outer radii have been truncated at various distances from the Sun. A comet size of 1.7 km was used for most of our simulations. In all of our simulations, the density of the primordial solar nebula decayed exponentially with an e-folding time of 2 Myr. It turns out that when the primordial solar nebula extends much beyond Saturn or Neptune, virtually no material will end up in the Oort cloud (OC) during this phase. Instead, the majority of the material will be on circular orbits inside of Jupiter if the inner edge of the disk is well inside Jupiter's orbit. If the disk's inner edge is beyond Jupiter's orbit, most comets end up on orbits in exterior mean-motion resonances with Saturn when Uranus and Neptune are not present. In those cases where the outer edge of the disk is close to Saturn or Neptune, the fraction of material that ends up in the subsequently formed OC is much less than that found in Brasser et al. [Brasser, R., Duncan, M., Levison, H., 2006. Icarus 184, 59-82] for the same cluster densities. This implies that for comets of roughly 2 km in size, the presence of the primordial solar nebula hinders OC formation. A byproduct of some of our simulations are endresults with a substantial fraction of the comets in the Uranus-Neptune scattered disk. A subsequent followup of this material is planned for the near future. In order to determine the effect of the size of the comets on OC formation efficiency, a set of runs with the same initial conditions but different cometary radii have been performed as well, from which it is determined that the threshold comet size to begin producing significant Oort clouds is roughly 20 km. This implies that the presence of the primordial solar nebula acts as a size-sorting mechanism, with large bodies unaffected by the gas drag and ending up in the OC while small bodies remain trapped in the planetary region, in the models studied.     

Solar work at Manila observatory

Seventeen comets, having information on sodium D-line emission during their apparition, have been studied. The heliocentric distances corresponding to the sodium emission commencement or termination epoch are found to have a dependence on the phase of the solar cycle. For comets appearing during a solar maximum the sodium emission is detectable out to greater distances than, for the comets appearing during solar minimum. The sodium emission is also found to depend on heliographic latitude of the comet. It is concluded that the spatial properties of the solar wind during a solar maximum and minimum are responsible for the observed dependence.     

Overview of the rocky component of Wild 2 comet samples: Insight into the early solar system,relationship with meteoritic materials and the differences between comets and asteroids

Abstract– The solid 2–10 μm samples of comet Wild 2 provide a limited but direct view of the solar nebula solids that accreted to form Jupiter family comets. The samples collected by the Stardust mission are dominated by high‐temperature materials that are closely analogous to meteoritic components. These materials include chondrule and CAI‐like fragments. Five presolar grains have been discovered, but it is clear that isotopically anomalous presolar grains are only a minor fraction of the comet. Although uncertain, the presolar grain content is perhaps higher than found in chondrites and most interplanetary dust particles. It appears that the majority of the analyzed Wild 2 solids were produced in high‐temperature “rock forming” environments, and they were then transported past the orbit of Neptune, where they accreted along with ice and organic components to form comet Wild 2. We hypothesize that Wild 2 rocky components are a sample of a ubiquitously distributed flow of nebular solids that was accreted by all bodies including planets and meteorite parent bodies. A primary difference between asteroids and the rocky content of comets is that comets are dominated by this widely distributed component. Asteroids contain this component, but are dominated by locally made materials that give chondrite groups their distinctive properties. Because of the large radial mixing in this scenario, it seems likely that most comets contain a similar mix of rocky materials. If this hypothesis is correct, then properties such as oxygen isotopes and minor element abundances in olivine, should have a wider dispersion than in any chondrite group, and this may be a characteristic property of primitive outer solar system bodies made from widely transported components.     

Long-Period Comets and the Oort Cloud

Long-period (LP) comets, Halley-type (HT) comets, and even some comets of the Jupiter family, probably come from the Oort cloud, a huge reservoir of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system. Therefore, these comets become important probes to learn about the distant Oort cloud population. We review the fundamental dynamical properties of LP comets, and what is our current understanding of the dynamical mechanisms that bring these bodies from the distant Oort cloud region to the inner planetary region. Most new comets have original reciprocal semimajor axes in the range2 × 10^-5 < 1/a_orig < 5 × 10^-5AU^-1. Yet, this cannot be taken to represent the actual space distribution of Oort cloud comets, but only the region in the energy space in which external perturbers have the greatest efficiency in bringing comets to the inner planetary region. The flux of Oort cloud comets in the outer planetary region is found to be at least several tens times greater than the flux in the inner planetary region. The sharp decrease closer to the Sun is due to the powerful gravitational fields of Jupiter and Saturn that prevent most Oort cloud comets from reaching the Earth’s neighborhood (they act as a dynamical barrier). A small fraction of ～10^-2 Oort cloud comets become Halley type (orbital periods P < 200 yr), and some of them can reach short-period orbits with P < 20 yr. We analyze whether we can distinguish the latter, very ‘old” LP comets, from comets of the Jupier family coming from the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt.     

Comet Grains: Their IR Emission and Their Relation to ISm Grains

Comets and the chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles (CP IDPs) that they shed in their comae are reservoirs of primitive solar nebula materials. The high porosity and fragility of cometary grains and CP IDPs, and anomalously high deuterium contents of highly fragile, pyroxene-rich Cluster IDPs imply these aggregate particles contain significant abundances of grains from the interstellar medium (ISM). IR spectra of comets (3–40 μm) reveal the presence of a warm (near-IR) featureless emission modeled by amorphous carbon grains. Broad andnarrow resonances near 10 and 20 microns are modeled by warm chondritic (50% Feand 50% Mg) amorphous silicates and cooler Mg-rich crystalline silicate minerals, respectively. Cometary amorphous silicates resonances are well matched by IRspectra of CP IDPs dominated by GEMS (0.1 μm silicate spherules) that are thought to be the interstellar Fe-bearing amorphous silicates produced in AGB stars. Acid-etched ultramicrotomed CP IDP samples, however, show that both the carbon phase (amorphous and aliphatic) and the Mg-rich amorphous silicate phase in GEMS are not optically absorbing. Rather, it is Fe and FeS nanoparticles embedded in the GEMS that makes the CP IDPs dark. Therefore, CP IDPs suggest significant processing has occurred in the ISM. ISM processing probably includes in He⁺ ion bombardment in supernovae shocks. Laboratory experiments show He⁺ ion bombardment amorphizes crystalline silicates, increases porosity, and reduces Fe into nanoparticles. Cometary crystalline silicate resonances are well matched by IR spectra of laboratory submicron Mg-rich olivine crystals and pyroxene crystals. Discovery of a Mg-pure olivine crystal in a Cluster IDP with isotopically anomalous oxygen indicates that a small fraction of crystalline silicates may have survived their journey from AGB stars through the ISM to the early solar nebula. The ISM does not have enough crystalline silicates (<5%), however, to account for the deduced abundance of crystalline silicates in comet dust. An insufficient source of ISMMg-rich crystals leads to the inference that most Mg-rich crystals in comets are primitive grains processed in the early solar nebula prior to their incorporation into comets. Mg-rich crystals may condense in the hot (～1450 K), inner zones of the early solar nebula and then travel large radial distances out to the comet-forming zone. On the other hand, Mg-rich silicate crystals may be ISM amorphous silicates annealed at ～1000 K and radially distributed out to the comet-forming zone or annealed in nebular shocks at ～5-10 AU. Determining the relative abundance of amorphous and crystalline silicatesin comets probes the relative contributions of ISM grains and primitive grains to small, icy bodies in the solar system. The life cycle of dust from its stardust origins through the ISM to its incorporation into comets is discussed.     

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

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 <5000 au  . The original flattened distribution of comets is conserved as the cometary orbits evolve from the outer Solar system era to the observed region.     

Biological Activity in the Early Solar System in Its Outer Regions (University College Cardiff Press, 1985)

Chemoautotrophic microorganisms were able to replicate and evolve in the interiors of some10¹¹ cometary bodies that occupied the outer regions of the solar system some 4 billion years ago. The requirement of a liquid condition within comets was maintained for an initial epoch through the energy released in radioactive decays. When such energy sources eventually became exhausted inward freezing led to the production of multi-cracked, fragile cometary structures. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

彗星动力学研究综述

彗星是太阳系中天文学的重要研究对象．它涉及到天体物理、化学、天体力学等多种领域。近年的研究表明,彗星可能是揭开太阳系起源和演化之谜的突破口,还可能与生命的起源有关．本文旨在对彗星动力学的发展情况作一简单的回顾和评述．     

The effects of disk building on the distributions of refractory materials in the solar nebula

Abstract– Refractory materials, such as calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) and crystalline silicates, are widely found in chondritic meteorites as well as comets, taken as evidence for large‐scale mixing in the solar nebula. Most models for mixing in the solar nebula begin with a well‐formed protoplanetary disk. Here, we relax this assumption by modeling the formation and evolution of the solar nebula during and after the period when it accreted material from its parent molecular cloud. We consider how disk building impacts the long‐term evolution of the disk and the implications for grain transport and mixing within it. Our model shows that materials that formed before infall was complete could be preserved in primitive bodies, especially those that accreted in the outer disk. This potentially explains the discovery of refractory objects with low initial ²⁶Al/²⁷Al ratios in comets. Our model also shows that the highest fraction of refractory materials in meteorites formed around the time that infall stopped. Thus, we suggest that the calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions in chondrites would be dominated by the population that formed during the transition from class I to class II stage of young stellar objects. This helps us to understand the meaning of t = 0 in solar system chronology. Moreover, our model offers a possible explanation for the existence of isotopic variations observed among refractory materials—that the anomalous materials formed before the collapse of the parent molecular cloud was complete.     

Extraterrestrial microspherules and iron needles in the interstellar medium

Microspherules in Paleozoic-Mesozoic bedded chert, presumed to be of extraterrestrial origin and comprised of clusters of iron needles,may represent an early stage in the aggregation of the inner planets. A fraction of the constituent iron needles will be expected to be carried along with expanding gas to the periphery of the solar nebula where the outer planets and comets condensed. A substantial fraction of iron needles would escape into interstellar space and add to the population of interstellar grains. Iron needles could contribute substantially to interstellar polarization and to the infrared opacity of the interstellar medium.     

The search for other planets: Clues from the solar system

Studies of element abundances and values of D/H in the atmospheres of the outer planets and Titan support a two-step model for the formation of these bodies. This model suggests that the dimensions of Uranus provide a good index for the sensitivity required to detect planets around other stars. The high proportion of N₂ on the surfaces of Pluto and Triton indicates that this gas was the dominant reservoir of nitrogen in the early solar nebula. It should also be abundant on pristine comets. There is evidence that some of these comets may well have brought a large store of volatiles to the inner planets, while others were falling into the sun. In other systems, icy planetesimals falling into stars should reveal themselves through high values of D/H.Paper presented at the Conference on Planetary Systems: Formation, Evolution, and Detection held 7–10 December, 1992 at CalTech, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.     

Planet X — The current status

Neptune and Pluto were discovered because of predictions derived from the differences between the observations and ephemerides of Uranus, but Pluto wasn't the predicted planet and the discrepancies still exist. This continuing existence of systematic differences between the observations and ephemerides of Uranus and Neptune has led to predictions of a Planet X. The demise of the dinosaurs and the existence of comets have been cited as additional evidence for another celestial object.Therefore, possible bodies have been hypothesized in the outer part of the solar system, or out beyond the solar system, including a binary companion, Nemesis. The theory of relativity and the incompleteness of the law of gravity have also been suggested as explanations for the outer planet discrepancies. Predictions of the possible locations of planet X have been made, with rather large uncertainties, and selected searches of some regions have yielded nothing. IRAS and Pioneer observations exist as additional sources of useful observational data.     

On the classification of comet plasma tails

The investigation of plasma tails of comets is an important part of comet research. Different classifications of plasma tails of comets are proposed. Plasma acceleration in the tails is investigated in sufficient detail. Several cometary forms are explained. Plasma tails of Mars and Venus were observed during the first studies of these planets. They are associated with the capture of ionized atoms and exosphere molecules by the solar wind magnetized plasma flow. Distinct plasma tails of Mars and Venus are caused by the mass loading of the solar wind with heavy ions. It was shown that the transverse dimension of the tails of Mars, Venus, and comets can be quite accurately determined by production rate of the obstacle to the solar wind flow. While plasma tails of Mars and Venus are investigated by in situ measurements from spacecraft, observations of comet tails from the Earth make it possible to see the entire object under study and to monitor changes in its structure. A certain similarity of cometary and planetary tails can be explained by the nonmagnetic nature of both types of bodies. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that investigations of plasma tails of comets can supplement the information obtained by in situ methods of the study of the planets. In this paper, plasma tails of comets, presumably analogous to the plasma tails of Mars and Venus, have been identified on modern photographs of comets (more than 1500 photographs viewed). Only quasi-steady laminar tails are considered. They are divided into two types: double structures and outflows. The paper attempts to define the 3D structure of double structures and to determine certain characteristics of outflows.