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Title:
2006 SQ372: A Likely Long-Period Comet from the Inner Oort Cloud
Authors:
Kaib, Nathan A.; Becker, Andrew C.; Jones, R. Lynne; Puckett, Andrew W.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Dilday, Benjamin; Frieman, Joshua A.; Oravetz, Daniel J.; Pan, Kaike; Quinn, Thomas; Schneider, Donald P.; Watters, Shannon
Affiliation:
AA(Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA ), AB(Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA ), AC(Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA ), AD(Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA ), AE(Apache Point Observatory, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA ), AF(Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-0819, USA ), AG(Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; Center for Particle Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510, USA ; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ), AH(Apache Point Observatory, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA ), AI(Apache Point Observatory, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA ), AJ(Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA ), AK(Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA), AL(Apache Point Observatory, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA )
Publication:
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 695, Issue 1, pp. 268-275 (2009). (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
04/2009
Origin:
IOP
ApJ Keywords:
comets: general, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud
DOI:
10.1088/0004-637X/695/1/268
Bibliographic Code:
2009ApJ...695..268K

Abstract

We report the discovery of a minor planet (2006 SQ372) on an orbit with a perihelion of 24 AU and a semimajor axis of 796 AU. Dynamical simulations show that this is a transient orbit and is unstable on a timescale of ~200 Myr. Falling near the upper semimajor axis range of the scattered disk and the lower semimajor axis range of the Oort Cloud, previous membership in either class is possible. By modeling the production of similar orbits from the Oort Cloud as well as from the scattered disk, we find that the Oort Cloud produces 16 times as many objects on SQ372-like orbits as the scattered disk. Given this result, we believe this to be the most distant long-period comet (LPC) ever discovered. Furthermore, our simulation results also indicate that 2000 OO67 has had a similar dynamical history. Unaffected by the "Jupiter-Saturn Barrier," these two objects are most likely LPCs from the inner Oort Cloud.
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