Sign on

SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service

· Find Similar Abstracts (with default settings below)
· Full Refereed Journal Article (PDF/Postscript)
· Full Refereed Scanned Article (GIF)
· References in the article
· Citations to the Article (34) (Citation History)
· Refereed Citations to the Article
· Also-Read Articles (Reads History)
·
· Translate This Page
Title:
The capture of interstellar comets
Authors:
Valtonen, M. J.; Innanen, K. A.
Affiliation:
AA(Turku University Observatory, Turku, Finland), AB(York University, Toronto, Canada)
Publication:
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 255, Apr. 1, 1982, p. 307-315. Research supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
04/1982
Category:
Astrophysics; Comets
Origin:
STI
NASA/STI Keywords:
Capture Effect, Comets, Orbit Calculation, Particle Interactions, Solar System, Stellar Mass Ejection, Binary Stars, Chemical Evolution, Galactic Evolution, Interstellar Matter, Numerical Integration, Oort Cloud, Protostars, Solar Orbits
Keywords:
COMETS, CAPTURE, ORBITS, VELOCITY, DISTRIBUTION, ORIGIN, OORT CLOUD, SOLAR SYSTEM, DYNAMICS, PROCEDURE, MATHEMATICAL MODELS, DATA, ENERGY, EXPERIMENTS, PARAMETERS, APHELION, INCLINATIONS, THEORETICAL STUDIES, HYPOTHESES
DOI:
10.1086/159830
Bibliographic Code:
1982ApJ...255..307V

Abstract

A large number of numerical orbit integrations of particles interacting with the Sun-Jupiter system have been performed in order to derive for the first time, empirical, velocity-dependent expressions for the capture cross section of the system. By integrating these with appropriate velocity distribution functions, bounds can be set on whether comets can be of interstellar origin. These indicate that a significant accumulation of interstellar comets into an 'Oort cloud' could occur only with a prolonged transit of the solar system through a relatively large, dense cloud of interstellar debris (comets) having a mean internal velocity dispersion of approximately 1.0 km/s and at a relative velocity not exceeding 0.5 km/s. At these levels, a significant antisymmetry of cometary aphelia in the direction of the relative solar motion is also to be expected. Finally, it is pointed out that suitable binary stars must be exceedingly efficient traps for both protostellar and interstellar debris.

Printing Options

Print whole paper
Print Page(s) through

Return 600 dpi PDF to Acrobat/Browser. Different resolutions (200 or 600 dpi), formats (Postscript, PDF, etc), page sizes (US Letter, European A4, etc), and compression (gzip,compress,none) can be set through the Printing Preferences


More Article Retrieval Options

HELP for Article Retrieval
Bibtex entry for this abstract   Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences)

Find Similar Abstracts:

Use: Authors
Title
Keywords (in text query field)
Abstract Text
Return: Query Results Return    items starting with number
Query Form
Database: Astronomy
Physics
arXiv e-prints