首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 484 毫秒
1.
Though optimized to discover and track fast moving Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) survey dataset can be mined to obtain information on the comet population observed serendipitously during the asteroid survey. We have completed analysis of over 400 CCD images of comets obtained during the autonomous operations of two 1.2-m telescopes: the first on the summit of Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui and the second on Palomar Mountain in southern California. Photometric calibrations of each frame were derived using background catalog stars and the near-nucleus comet photometry measured. We measured dust production and normalized magnitudes for the coma and nucleus in order to explore cometary activity and comet size-frequency distributions. Our data over an approximately two-year time frame (2001 August-2003 February) include 52 comets: 12 periodic, 19 numbered, and 21 non-periodic, obtained over a wide range of viewing geometries and helio/geocentric distances. Nuclear magnitudes were estimated for a subset of comets observed. We found that for low-activity comets (Afρ<100 cm) our model gave reasonable estimates for nuclear size and magnitude. The slope of the cumulative luminosity function of our sample of low-activity comets was 0.33 ± 0.04, consistent with the slope we measured for the Jupiter-family cometary nuclei collected by Fernández et al. [Fernández, J.A., Tancredi, G., Rickman, H., Licandro, J., 1999. Astron. Astrophys. 392, 327-340] of 0.38 ± 0.02. Our slopes of the cumulative size distribution α=1.50±0.08 agree well with the slopes measured by Whitman et al. [Whitman, K., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., 2006. Icarus 183, 101-114], Meech et al. [Meech, K.J., Hainaut, O.R., Marsden, B.G., 2004. Icarus 170, 463-491], Lowry et al. [Lowry, S.C., Fitzsimmons, A., Collander-Brown, S., 2003. Astron. Astrophys. 397, 329-343], and Weissman and Lowry [Weissman, P.R., Lowry, S.C., 2003. Lunar Planet. Sci. 34. Abstract 34].  相似文献   

2.
An investigation of the activity of Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) with a thermophysical nucleus model that does not rely on the existence of amorphous ice is presented. Our approach incorporates recent observations allowing to constrain important parameters that control cometary activity. The model accounts for heat conduction, heat advection, gas diffusion, sublimation, and condensation in a porous ice-dust matrix with moving boundaries. Erosion due to surface sublimation of water ice leads to a moving boundary. The movement of the boundary is modeled by applying a temperature remapping technique which allows us to account for the loss in the internal energy of the eroded surface material. These kind of problems are commonly referred to as Stefan problems. The model takes into account the diurnal rotation of the nucleus and seasonal effects due to the strong obliquity of Hale-Bopp as reported by Jorda et al. (Jorda, L., Rembor, K., Lecacheux, J., Colom, P., Colas, F., Frappa, E., Lara, L.M. [1997]. Earth Moon Planets 77, 167-180). Only bulk sublimation of water and CO ice are considered without further assumptions such as amorphous ices with certain amount of occluded CO gas. Confined and localized activity patterns are investigated following the reports of Lederer and Campins (Lederer, S.M., Campins, H. [2002]. Earth Moon Planets 90, 381-389) about the chemical heterogeneity of Hale-Bopp and of Bockelée-Morvan et al. (Bockelée-Morvan, D., Henry, F., Biver, N., Boissier, J., Colom, P., Crovisier, J., Despois, D., Moreno, R., Wink, J. [2009]. Astron. Astrophys. 505, 825-843) about a strong CO source at a latitude of 20°. The best fit to the observations of Biver et al. (Biver, N. et al. [2002]. Earth Moon Planets 90, 5-14) is obtained with a low thermal conductivity of 0.01 W m−1 K−1. This is in agreement with recent results of the Deep Impact mission to 9P/Tempel 1 (Groussin, O., A’Hearn, M.F., Li, J.-Y., Thomas, P.C., Sunshine, J.M., Lisse, C.M., Meech, K.J., Farnham, T.L., Feaga, L.M., Delamere, W.A. [2007]. Icarus 187, 16-25) and with previous thermal simulations (Kührt, E. [1999]. Space Sci. Rev. 90, 75-82). The water production curve matches the production rates well from −4 AU pre-perihelion to the outgoing leg while the model does not reproduce so well the water production beyond 4 AU pre-perihelion. The CO production curve is a good fit to the measurements of Biver et al. (2002) over the whole measured heliocentric range from −7 AU pre- to 15 AU post-perihelion.  相似文献   

3.
We estimate the total number and the slope of the size-frequency distribution (SFD) of dormant Jupiter family comets (JFCs) by fitting a one-parameter model to the known population. We first select 61 near-Earth objects (NEOs) that are likely to be dormant JFCs because their orbits are dynamically coupled to Jupiter [Bottke, W.F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J., Levison, H.F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T.S., 2002a. Icarus 156, 399-433]. Then, from the numerical simulations of Levison and Duncan [1997. Icarus 127, 13-32], we construct an orbit distribution model for JFCs in the NEO orbital element space. We assume an orbit-independent SFD for all JFCs, the slope of which is our unique free parameter. Finally, we compute observational biases for dormant JFCs using a calibrated NEO survey simulator [Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Spahr, T., Petit, J., Bottke, W.F., 2003. Icarus 161, 17-33]. By fitting the biased model to the data, we estimate that there are ∼75 dormant JFCs with H<18 in the NEO region and that the slope of their cumulative SFD is −1.5±0.3. Our slope for the SFD of dormant JFCs is very close to that of active JFCs as determined by Weissman and Lowry [2003. Lunar Planet. Sci. 34. Abstract 2003]. Thus, we argue that when JFCs fade they are likely to become dormant rather than to disrupt and that the fate of faded comets is size-independent. Our results imply that the size distribution of the JFC progenitors—the scattered disk trans-neptunian population—either (i) has a similar and shallow SFD or (i) is slightly steeper and physical processes acting on the comets in a size-dependent manner creates the shallower active comet SFD. Our measured slope, typical of collisionally evolved populations with a size-dependent impact strength [Benz, W., Asphaug, E., 1999. Icarus 142, 5-20], suggests that scattered disk bodies reached collisional equilibrium inside the protoplanetary disk prior to their removal from the planetary region.  相似文献   

4.
A. Bar-Nun  G. Notesco 《Icarus》2007,190(2):655-659
Recent attempts using high resolution spectra to detect N+2 in several comets were unsuccessful [Cochran, A.L., Cochran, W.D., Baker, E.S., 2000. Icarus 146, 583-593; Cochran, A.L., 2002. Astrophys. J. 576, L165-L168]. The upper limits on N+2 in comparison with the positively detected CO+ for Comets C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp, 122P/1995 S1 de Vico and 153P/2002 C1 Ikeya-Zhang range between . Ar was not detected in three recent comets [Weaver, H.A., Feldman, P.D., Combi, M.R., Krasnopolsky, V., Lisse, C.M., Shemansky, D.E., 2002. Astrophys. J. 576, L95-L98], with upper limits of Ar/CO<(3.4-7.8)×10−2 for Comets C/1999 T1 McNaught-Hartley, C/2001 A2 LINEAR and C/2000 WM1 LINEAR. The Ar detected by Stern et al. [Stern, S.A., Slater, D.C., Festou, M.C., Parker, J.Wm., Gladstone, G.R., A'Hearn, M.F., Wilkinson, E., 2000. Astrophys. J. 544, L169-L172] for Comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp, gives a ratio Ar/CO=7.25×10−2, which was not confirmed by Cosmovici et al. [Cosmovici, C.B., Bratina, V., Schwarz, G., Tozzi, G., Mumma, M.J., Stalio, R., 2006. Astrophys. Space Sci. 301, 135-143]. Trying to solve the two problems, we studied experimentally the trapping of N2+CO+Ar in amorphous water ice, at 24-30 K. CO was found to be trapped in the ice 20-70 times more efficiently than N2 and with the same efficiency as Ar. The resulting Ar/CO ratio of 1.2×10−2 is consistent with Weaver et al.'s [Weaver, H.A., Feldman, P.D., Combi, M.R., Krasnopolsky, V., Lisse, C.M., Shemansky, D.E., 2002. Astrophys. J. 576, L95-L98] non-detection of Ar. However, with an extreme starting value for N2/CO = 0.22 in the region where the ice grains which agglomerated to produce comet nuclei were formed, the expected N2/CO ratio in the cometary ice should be 6.6×10−3, much higher than its non-detection limit.  相似文献   

5.
Evidence has mounted for some time that planet migration is an important part of the formation of planetary systems, both in the Solar System [Malhotra, R., 1993. Nature 365, 819-821] and in extrasolar systems [Mayor, M., Queloz, D., 1995. Nature 378, 355-359; Lin, D.N.C., Bodenheimer, P., Richardson, D.C., 1996. Nature 380, 606-607]. One mechanism that produces migration (the change in a planet's semi-major axis a over time) is the scattering of comet- and asteroid-size bodies called planetesimals [Fernandez, J.A., Ip, W.-H., 1984. Icarus 58, 109-120]. Significant angular momentum exchange can occur between the planets and the planetesimals during local scattering, enough to cause a rapid, self-sustained migration of the planet [Ida, S., Bryden, G., Lin, D.N.C., Tanaka, H., 2000. Astrophys. J. 534, 428-445]. This migration has been studied for the particular case of the four outer planets of the Solar System (as in Gomes et al. [Gomes, R.S., Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.F., 2004. Icarus 170, 492-507]), but is not well understood in general. We have used the Miranda [McNeil, D., Duncan, M., Levison, H.F., 2005. Astron. J. 130, 2884-2899] computer simulation code to perform a broad parameter-space survey of the physical variables that determine the migration of a single planet in a planetesimal disk. Migration is found to be predominantly inwards, and the migration rate is found to be independent of planet mass for low-mass planets in relatively high-mass disks. Indeed, a simple scaling relation from Ida et al. [Ida, S., Bryden, G., Lin, D.N.C., Tanaka, H., 2000. Astrophys. J. 534, 428-445] matches well with the dependencies of the migration rate:
(1)  相似文献   

6.
M. Weiler  H. Rauer  J. Knollenberg 《Icarus》2007,190(2):423-431
The target of the Deep Impact space mission (NASA), Comet 9P/Tempel 1, was observed from two nights before impact to eight nights after impact using the FORS spectrographs at the ESO VLT UT1 and UT2 telescopes. Low resolution optical long-slit spectra were obtained to study the evolution of the gas coma around the Deep Impact event. Following first results of this observing campaign on the CN and dust activity [Rauer, H., Weiler, M., Sterken, C., Jehin, E., Knollenberg, J., Hainaut, O., 2006. Astron. Astrophys. 459, 257-263], this work presents a study of the complete dataset on CN, C2, C3, and NH2 activity of Comet 9P/Tempel 1. An extended impact gas cloud was observed moving radially outwards. No compositional differences between this impact cloud and the undisturbed coma were found as far as the observed radicals are concerned. The gas production rates before and well after impact indicate no change in the cometary activity on an intermediate time scale. Over the observing period, the activity of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 was found to be related to the rotation of the cometary nucleus. The rotational lightcurve for different gaseous species provides indications for compositional differences among different parts of the nucleus surface.  相似文献   

7.
The origin of Saturn's massive ring system is still unknown. Two popular scenarios—the tidal splitting of passing comets and the collisional destruction of a satellite—rely on a high cometary flux in the past. In the present paper we attempt to quantify the cometary flux during the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) to assess the likelihood of both scenarios. Our analysis relies on the so-called “Nice model” of the origin of the LHB [Tsiganis, K., Gomes, R., Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.F., 2005. Nature 435, 459-461; Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.H., Tsiganis, K., Gomes, R., 2005. Nature 435, 462-465; Gomes, R., Levison, H.F., Tsiganis, K., Morbidelli, A., 2005. Nature 435, 466-469] and on the size distribution of the primordial trans-neptunian planetesimals constrained in [Charnoz, S., Morbidelli, A., 2007. Icarus 188, 468-480]. We find that the cometary flux on Saturn during the LHB was so high that both scenarios for the formation of Saturn rings are viable in principle. However, a more detailed study shows that the comet tidal disruption scenario implies that all four giant planets should have comparable ring systems whereas the destroyed satellite scenario would work only for Saturn, and perhaps Jupiter. This is because in Saturn's system, the synchronous orbit is interior to the Roche Limit, which is a necessary condition for maintaining a satellite in the Roche Zone up to the time of the LHB. We also discuss the apparent elimination of silicates from the ring parent body implied by the purity of the ice in Saturn's rings. The LHB has also strong implications for the survival of the saturnian satellites: all satellites smaller than Mimas would have been destroyed during the LHB, whereas Enceladus would have had from 40% to 70% chance of survival depending on the disruption model. In conclusion, these results suggest that the LHB is the “sweet moment” for the formation of a massive ring system around Saturn.  相似文献   

8.
R. Brasser  M.J. Duncan 《Icarus》2006,184(1):59-82
Observations suggest most stars originate in clusters embedded in giant molecular clouds [Lada, C.J., Lada, E.A., 2003. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 41, 57-115]. Our Solar System likely spent 1-5 Myrs in such regions just after it formed. Thus the Oort Cloud (OC) possibly retains evidence of the Sun's early dynamical history and of the stellar and tidal influence of the cluster. Indeed, the newly found objects (90377) Sedna and 2000 CR105 may have been put on their present orbits by such processes [Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.F., 2004. Astron. J. 128, 2564-2576]. Results are presented here of numerical simulations of the orbital evolution of comets subject to the influence of the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn (with their current masses on orbits appropriate to the period before the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) [Tsiganis, K., Gomes, R., Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.F., 2005. Nature 435, 459-461]), passing stars and tidal force associated with the gas and stars of an embedded star cluster. The cluster was taken to be a Plummer model with 200-400 stars, with a range of initial central densities. The Sun's orbit was integrated in the cluster potential together with Jupiter and Saturn and the test particles. Stellar encounters were incorporated by directly integrating the effects of stars passing within a sphere centred on the Sun of radius equal to the Plummer radius for low-density clusters and half a Plummer radius for high-density clusters. The gravitational influence of the gas was modeled using the tidal force of the cluster potential. For a given solar orbit, the mean density, 〈ρ〉, was computed by orbit-averaging the density of material encountered. This parameter proved to be a good measure for predicting the properties of the OC. On average 2-18% of our initial sample of comets end up in the OC after 1-3 Myr. A comet is defined to be part of the OC if it is bound and has q>35 AU. Our models show that the median distance of an object in the OC scales approximately as 〈ρ−1/2 when . Our models easily produce objects on orbits like that of (90377) Sedna [Brown, M.E., Trujillo, C., Rabinowitz, D., 2004. Astrophys. J. 617, 645-649] within ∼1 Myr in cases where the mean density is or higher; one needs mean densities of order to create objects like 2000 CR105 by this mechanism, which are reasonable (see, e.g., Guthermuth, R.A., Megeath, S.T., Pipher, J.L., Williams, J.P., Allen, L.E., Myers, P.C., Raines, S.N., 2005. Astrophys. J. 632, 397-420). Thus the latter object may also be part of the OC. Close stellar passages can stir the primordial Kuiper Belt to sufficiently high eccentricities (e?0.05; Kenyon, S.J., Bromley, B.C., 2002. Astron. J. 123, 1757-1775) that collisions become destructive. From the simulations performed it is determined that there is a 50% or better chance to stir the primordial Kuiper Belt to eccentricities e?0.05 at 50 AU when . The orbit of the new object 2003 UB313 [Brown, M.E., Trujillo, C.A., Rabinowitz, D.L., 2005. Astrophys. J. 635, L97-L100] is only reproduced for mean cluster densities of the order of , but in the simulations it could not come to be on its current orbit by this mechanism without disrupting the formation of bodies in the primordial Kuiper Belt down to 20 AU. It is therefore improbable that the latter object is created by this mechanism.  相似文献   

9.
R. Brasser  M.J. Duncan 《Icarus》2007,191(2):413-433
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.  相似文献   

10.
The Deep Impact mission succeeded in excavating inner materials from the nucleus of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 on 2005 July 04 (at 05:52 UT). Comet 9P/Tempel 1 is one of Jupiter family short period comets, which might originate in the Kuiper belt region in the solar nebula. In order to characterize the comet and to support the mission from the ground-based observatory, optical high-dispersion spectroscopic observations were carried out with the echelle spectrograph (UVES) mounted on the 8-m telescope VLT (UT2) before and after the Deep Impact event. Ortho-to-para abundance ratios (OPRs) of cometary ammonia were determined from the NH2 emission spectra. The OPRs of ammonia on July 3.996 UT and 4.997 UT were derived to be 1.28±0.07 (nuclear spin temperature: Tspin=24±2 K) and 1.26±0.08 (Tspin=25±2 K), respectively. There is no significant change between before and after the impact. Actually, most materials ejected from the impact site could have moved away from the nucleus on July 4.997 UT, about 17 h after the impact. However, a small fraction of the ejected materials might remain in the slit of UVES instrument at that time because an excess of about 20% in the NH2 emission flux is observed above the normal activity level was found [Manfroid, J., Hutsemékers, D., Jehin, E., Cochran, A.L., Arpigny, C., Jackson, W.M., Meech, K.J., Schulz, R., Zucconi, J.-M., 2007. Icarus. This issue]. If the excess of NH2 on July 04.997 UT was produced from icy materials excavated by the Deep Impact, then an upper-limit of the ammonia OPR would be 1.75 (Tspin>17 K) for those materials. On the other hand, the OPR of ammonia produced from the quiescent sources was similar to that of the Oort cloud comets observed so far. This fact may imply that physical conditions where cometary ices formed were similar between Comet 9P/Tempel 1 and the Oort cloud comets.  相似文献   

11.
P. Lamy  I. Toth 《Icarus》2009,201(2):674-713
We present new color results of cometary nuclei obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) whose superior resolution enables us to accurately isolate the nucleus signals from the surrounding comae. By combining with scrutinized available data obtained with ground-based telescopes, we accumulated a sample of 51 cometary nuclei, 44 ecliptic comets (ECs) and 7 nearly-isotropic comets (NICs) using the nomenclature of Levison [Levison, H.F., 1996. In: Rettig, T.W., Hahn, J.M. (Eds.), Completing the Inventory of the Solar System. In: ASP Conf. Ser., vol. 107, pp. 173-192]. We analyze color distributions and color-color correlations as well as correlations with other physical parameters. We present our compilation of colors of 232 outer Solar System objects—separately considering the different dynamical populations, classical KBOs in low and high-inclination orbits (respectively CKBO-LI and CKBO-HI), resonant KBOs (practically Plutinos), scattered-disk objects (SDOs) and Centaurs—of 12 candidate dead comets, and of 85 Trojans. We perform a systematic analysis of all color distributions, and conclude by synthesizing the implications of the dynamical evolution and of the colors for the origin of the minor bodies of the Solar System. We find that the color distributions are remarkably consistent with the scenarios of the formation of TNOs by Gomes [Gomes, R.S., 2003. Icarus 161, 404-418] generalized by the “Nice” model [Levison, H.F., Morbidelli, A., VanLaerhoven, Ch., Gomes, R., Tsiganis, L., 2008. Icarus 196, 258-273], and of the Trojans by Morbidelli et al. [Morbidelli, A., Levison, H.F., Tsiganis, K., Gomes, R., 2005. Nature 435, 462-465]. The color distributions of the Centaurs are globally similar to those of the CKBO-HI, the Plutinos and the SDOs. However the potential bimodality of their distributions allows to possibly distinguish two groups based on their (BR) index: Centaur I with (BR)>1.7 and Centaurs II with (BR)<1.4. Centaurs I could be composed of TNOs (prominently CKBO-LI) and ultra red objects from a yet unstudied family. Centaurs II could consist in a population of evolved objects which have already visited the inner Solar System, and which has been scattered back beyond Jupiter. The diversity of colors of the ECs, in particular the existence of very red objects, is consistent with an origin in the Kuiper belt. Candidate dead comets represent an ultimate state of evolution as they appear more evolved than the Trojans and Centaurs II.  相似文献   

12.
R. Brasser  M.J. Duncan 《Icarus》2008,196(1):274-284
In a previous publication [Brasser, R., Duncan, M.J., Levison, H.F., 2006. Icarus 184, 59-82], models of the inner Oort cloud were built which included the effect of an embedded star cluster on cometary orbits about the Sun. The main conclusions of that paper were that the formation efficiency is about 10% and the median distance of the cloud to the Sun only depends on the mean density of gas and stars the Sun encountered. Here we report on the results of simulations which followed the ensuing dynamical evolution of these comet clouds in the current Galactic environment once the Sun left the embedded star cluster. The goal is to determine whether or not the dynamical influence of passing Galactic field stars and the Galactic tidal field is sufficient to replenish the current outer cloud (semi-major axis a>20,000 AU) with enough material from the inner cloud (a<20,000 AU). Since visible new comets come directly from the outer cloud, a mass estimate only exists for the latter, with a lower limit of 1 M [Francis, P.J., 2005. Astrophys. J. 635, 1348-1361]. Knowing the amount of expansion of the inner cloud may therefore yield an estimate of the mass of said (unseen) inner cloud. Our results indicate that typically only 10% of the comets from the inner cloud land in the outer cloud and are bound after 4.5 Gyr. If one assumes that in the extreme case all or the majority of the current population of the outer cloud has come from the inner cloud, then a typical value of the mass of the inner cloud is about 10 M. The results of [Brasser, R., Duncan, M.J., Levison, H.F., 2006. Icarus 184, 59-82] showed that ∼10% of comets from the Jupiter-Saturn region were implanted in the inner Oort cloud, which implies an uncomfortably large value of about 100 M for the mass of solids in the primordial Jupiter-Saturn region. This extreme case might be remedied in two says: either the effect of Giant Molecular Cloud complexes on the inner Oort cloud must be much more severe than originally thought, or there was a two-stage formation process for the Oort cloud, in which the outer cloud was largely populated by comets scattered once the Sun had left its primordial birth cluster.  相似文献   

13.
We present the first observational measurement of the orbit and size distribution of small Solar System objects whose orbits are wholly interior to the Earth's (Inner Earth Objects, IEOs, with aphelion <0.983 AU). We show that we are able to model the detections of near-Earth objects (NEO) by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) using a detailed parameterization of the CSS survey cadence and detection efficiencies as implemented within the Jedicke et al. [Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Spahr, T., Petit, J.M., Bottke, W.F., 2003. Icarus 161, 17-33] survey simulator and utilizing the Bottke et al. [Bottke, W.F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H.F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T.S., 2002. Icarus 156, 399-433] model of the NEO population's size and orbit distribution. We then show that the CSS detections of 4 IEOs are consistent with the Bottke et al. [Bottke, W.F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H.F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T.S., 2002. Icarus 156, 399-433] IEO model. Observational selection effects for the IEOs discovered by the CSS were then determined using the survey simulator in order to calculate the corrected number and H distribution of the IEOs. The actual number of IEOs with H<18 (21) is 36±26 (530±240) and the slope of the H magnitude distribution (∝10αH) for the IEOs is . The slope is consistent with previous measurements for the NEO population of αNEO=0.35±0.02 [Bottke, W.F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H.F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T.S., 2002. Icarus 156, 399-433] and αNEO=0.39±0.013 [Stuart, J.S., Binzel, R.P., 2004. Icarus 170, 295-311]. Based on the agreement between the predicted and observed IEO orbit and absolute magnitude distributions there is no indication of any non-gravitational effects (e.g. Yarkovsky, tidal disruption) affecting the known IEO population.  相似文献   

14.
The fragmentation of the split Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 B was observed with the prime-focus camera Suprime-Cam attached to the Subaru 8.2-m telescope. The fragmentation revealed dozens of miniature comets [Fuse, T., Yamamoto, N., Kinoshita, D., Furusawa, H., Watanabe, J., 2007. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn. 59 (2), 381-386]. We analyzed the Subaru/Suprime-Cam images, detecting no fewer than 154 mini-comets, mostly extending to the southwest. Three were close to the projected orbit of fragment B. We applied synchrone-syndyne analysis, modified for rocket effect analysis, to the mini-fragment spatial distribution. We found that most of these mini-comets were ejected from fragment B by an outburst occurring around 1 April 2006, and three fragments on the leading side of nucleus B could have been released sunward on the previous return. Several fragments might have been released by successive outbursts around 24 April and 2 May 2006. The ratio of the rocket force to solar gravity was 7-23 times larger than that exerted on fragment B. No significant color variation was found. The mean color index, V-R = 0.50 ± 0.07, was slightly redder than that of the Sun and similar to that of the largest fragment, C, which suggests that these mini-fragments were detected mainly through sunlight reflected by dust particles and materials on the nuclei. We examined the surface brightness profiles of all detected fragments and estimated the sizes of 154 fragments. We found that the radius of these mini-fragments was in the 5- to 108-m range (equivalent size of Tunguska impactor). The power-law index of the differential size distribution was q = −3.34 ± 0.05. Based on this size distribution, we found that about 1-10% of the mass of fragment B was lost in the April 2006 outbursts. Modeling the cometary fragment dynamics [Desvoivres, E., Klinger, J., Levasseur-Regourd, A.C., Lecacheux, J., Jorda, L., Enzian, A., Colas, F., Frappa, E., Laques, P., 1999. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 303 (4), 826-834; Desvoivres, E., Klinger, J., Levasseur-Regourd, A.C., Jones, G.H., 2000. Icarus 144, 172-181] revealed that it is likely that mini-fragments smaller than ∼10-20 m could be depleted in water ice and become inactive, implying that decameter-sized comet fragments could survive against melting and remain as near-Earth objects. We attempted to detect the dust trail, which was clearly found in infrared wavelengths by Spitzer. No brightness enhancement brighter than 30.0 mag arcsec−2 (3σ) was detected in the orbit of fragment B.  相似文献   

15.
Chiang et al. [Chiang, E., Lithwick, Y., Murray-Clay, R., Buie, M., Grundy, W., Holman, M., 2007. In: Protostars and Planets V, pp. 895-911] have recently proposed that the observed structure of the Kuiper belt could be the result of a dynamical instability of a system of ∼5 primordial ice-giant planets in the outer Solar System. According to this scenario, before the instability occurred, these giants were growing in a highly collisionally damped environment according to the arguments in Goldreich et al. [Goldreich, P., Lithwick, Y., Sari, R., 2004. Astrophys. J. 614, 497-507; Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 42, 549-601]. Here we test this hypothesis with a series of numerical simulations using a new code designed to incorporate the dynamical effects of collisions. We find that we cannot reproduce the observed Solar System. In particular, Goldreich et al. [Goldreich, P., Lithwick, Y., Sari, R., 2004. Astrophys. J. 614, 497-507; Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 42, 549-601] and Chiang et al. [Chiang, E., Lithwick, Y., Murray-Clay, R., Buie, M., Grundy, W., Holman, M., 2007. In: Protostars and Planets V, pp. 895-911] argue that during the instability, all but two of the ice giants would be ejected from the Solar System by Jupiter and Saturn, leaving Uranus and Neptune behind. We find that ejections are actually rare and that instead the systems spread outward. This always leads to a configuration with too many planets that are too far from the Sun. Thus, we conclude that both Goldreich et al.'s scheme for the formation of Uranus and Neptune and Chiang et al.'s Kuiper belt formation scenario are not viable in their current forms.  相似文献   

16.
Recent numerical simulations have demonstrated that the Sun’s dynamical history within the Milky Way may be much more complex than that suggested by its current low peculiar velocity (Sellwood, J.A., Binney, J.J. [2002]. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 336, 785-796; Roškar, R., Debattista, V.P., Quinn, T.R., Stinson, G.S., Wadsley, J. [2008]. Astrophys. J. 684, L79-L82). In particular, the Sun may have radially migrated through the galactic disk by up to 5-6 kpc (Roškar, R., Debattista, V.P., Quinn, T.R., Stinson, G.S., Wadsley, J. [2008]. Astrophys. J. 684, L79-L82). This has important ramifications for the structure of the Oort Cloud, as it means that the Solar System may have experienced tidal and stellar perturbations that were significantly different from its current local galactic environment. To characterize the effects of solar migration within the Milky Way, we use direct numerical simulations to model the formation of an Oort Cloud around stars that end up on solar-type orbits in a galactic-scale simulation of a Milky Way-like disk formation. Surprisingly, our simulations indicate that Sedna’s orbit may belong to the classical Oort Cloud. Contrary to previous understanding, we show that field star encounters play a pivotal role in setting the Oort Cloud’s extreme inner edge, and due to their stochastic nature this inner edge sometimes extends to Sedna’s orbit. The Sun’s galactic migration heightens the chance of powerful stellar passages, and Sedna production occurs around ∼20-30% of the solar-like stars we study. Considering the entire Oort Cloud, we find its median distance depends on the minimum galactocentric distance attained during the Sun’s orbital history. The inner edge also shows a similar dependence but with increased scatter due to the effects of powerful stellar encounters. Both of these Oort Cloud parameters can vary by an order of magnitude and are usually overestimated by an Oort Cloud formation model that assumes a fixed galactic environment. In addition, the amount of material trapped in outer Oort Cloud orbits (a > 20,000 AU) can be extremely low and may present difficulties for traditional models of Oort Cloud formation and long-period comet production.  相似文献   

17.
M. Seiß  F. Spahn  Jürgen Schmidt 《Icarus》2010,210(1):298-317
Saturn’s rings host two known moons, Pan and Daphnis, which are massive enough to clear circumferential gaps in the ring around their orbits. Both moons create wake patterns at the gap edges by gravitational deflection of the ring material (Cuzzi, J.N., Scargle, J.D. [1985]. Astrophys. J. 292, 276-290; Showalter, M.R., Cuzzi, J.N., Marouf, E.A., Esposito, L.W. [1986]. Icarus 66, 297-323). New Cassini observations revealed that these wavy edges deviate from the sinusoidal waveform, which one would expect from a theory that assumes a circular orbit of the perturbing moon and neglects particle interactions. Resonant perturbations of the edges by moons outside the ring system, as well as an eccentric orbit of the embedded moon, may partly explain this behavior (Porco, C.C., and 34 colleagues [2005]. Science 307, 1226-1236; Tiscareno, M.S., Burns, J.A., Hedman, M.M., Spitale, J.N., Porco, C.C., Murray, C.D., and the Cassini Imaging team [2005]. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 37, 767; Weiss, J.W., Porco, C.C., Tiscareno, M.S., Burns, J.A., Dones, L. [2005]. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 37, 767; Weiss, J.W., Porco, C.C., Tiscareno, M.S. [2009]. Astron. J. 138, 272-286). Here we present an extended non-collisional streamline model which accounts for both effects. We describe the resulting variations of the density structure and the modification of the nonlinearity parameter q. Furthermore, an estimate is given for the applicability of the model. We use the streamwire model introduced by Stewart (Stewart, G.R. [1991]. Icarus 94, 436-450) to plot the perturbed ring density at the gap edges.We apply our model to the Keeler gap edges undulated by Daphnis and to a faint ringlet in the Encke gap close to the orbit of Pan. The modulations of the latter ringlet, induced by the perturbations of Pan (Burns, J.A., Hedman, M.M., Tiscareno, M.S., Nicholson, P.D., Streetman, B.J., Colwell, J.E., Showalter, M.R., Murray, C.D., Cuzzi, J.N., Porco, C.C., and the Cassini ISS team [2005]. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 37, 766), can be well described by our analytical model. Our analysis yields a Hill radius of Pan of 17.5 km, which is 9% smaller than the value presented by Porco (Porco, C.C., and 34 colleagues [2005]. Science 307, 1226-1236), but fits well to the radial semi-axis of Pan of 17.4 km. This supports the idea that Pan has filled its Hill sphere with accreted material (Porco, C.C., Thomas, P.C., Weiss, J.W., Richardson, D.C. [2007]. Science 318, 1602-1607). A numerical solution of a streamline is used to estimate the parameters of the Daphnis-Keeler gap system, since the close proximity of the gap edge to the moon induces strong perturbations, not allowing an application of the analytic streamline model. We obtain a Hill radius of 5.1 km for Daphnis, an inner edge variation of 8 km, and an eccentricity for Daphnis of 1.5 × 10−5. The latter two quantities deviate by a factor of two from values gained by direct observations (Jacobson, R.A., Spitale, J., Porco, C.C., Beurle, K., Cooper, N.J., Evans, M.W., Murray, C.D. [2008]. Astron. J. 135, 261-263; Tiscareno, M.S., Burns, J.A., Hedman, M.M., Spitale, J.N., Porco, C.C., Murray, C.D., and the Cassini Imaging team [2005]. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 37, 767), which might be attributed to the neglect of particle interactions and vertical motion in our model.  相似文献   

18.
W.B. Hubbard  M.F. Hattori  I. Hubeny 《Icarus》2007,187(2):358-364
We present calculations for the evolution and surviving mass of highly-irradiated extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) at orbital semimajor axes ranging from 0.023 to 0.057 AU using a generalized scaled theory for mass loss, together with new surface-condition grids for hot EGPs and a consistent treatment of tidal truncation. Theoretical estimates for the rate of energy-limited hydrogen escape from giant-planet atmospheres differ by two orders of magnitude, when one holds planetary mass, composition, and irradiation constant. Baraffe et al. [Baraffe, I., Selsis, F., Chabrier, G., Barman, T.S., Allard, F., Hauschildt, P.H., Lammer, H., 2004. Astron. Astrophys. 419, L13-L16] predict the highest rate, based on the theory of Lammer et al. [Lammer, H., Selsis, F., Ribas, I., Guinan, E.F., Bauer, S.J., Weiss, W.W., 2003. Astrophys. J. 598, L121-L124]. Scaling the theory of Watson et al. [Watson, A.J., Donahue, T.M., Walker, J.C.G., 1981. Icarus 48, 150-166] to parameters for a highly-irradiated exoplanet, we find an escape rate ∼102 lower than Baraffe's. With the scaled Watson theory we find modest mass loss, occurring early in the history of a hot EGP. In this theory, mass loss including the effect of Roche-lobe overflow becomes significant primarily for masses below a Saturn mass, for semimajor axes ?0.023 AU. This contrasts with the Baraffe model, where hot EGPs are claimed to be remnants of much more massive bodies, originally several times Jupiter and still losing substantial mass fractions at present.  相似文献   

19.
O'Brien and Greenberg [O'Brien, D.P., Greenberg, R., 2005. Icarus 178, 179-212] developed a self-consistent numerical model of the collisional and dynamical evolution of the main-belt and NEA populations that was tested against a diverse range of observational and theoretical constraints. In this paper, we use those results to update the asteroid cratering model of Greenberg et al. [Greenberg, R., Nolan, M.C., Bottke, W.F., Kolvoord, R.A., Veverka, J., 1994. Icarus 107, 84-97; Greenberg, R., Bottke, W.F., Nolan, M., Geissler, P., Petit, J., Durda, D.D., Asphaug, E., Head, J., 1996. Icarus 120, 106-118], and show that the main-belt asteroid population from the O'Brien and Greenberg collisional/dynamical evolution modeling is consistent with the crater records on Gaspra, Ida, Mathilde, and Eros, the four asteroids that have been observed by spacecraft.  相似文献   

20.
We investigate a new dynamical mechanism for producing Halley-type comets from the scattered disk of comets. Levison and Duncan [Levison, H., Duncan, M., 1997. Icarus 127, 13-32] and Duncan and Levison [Duncan, M., Levison, H., 1997. Science 276, 1670-1672] showed that a significant number of objects leave the scattered disk by evolving to semi-major axes greater than 1000 AU. We find that once these objects reach semi-major axes on the order of 104 AU, a significant fraction immediately have their perihelia driven inward by the galactic tides. Approximately 0.01% of the objects that reach 104 AU then evolve onto orbits similar to the observed Halley-like comets due to gravitational interactions with the giant planets. The orbital element distribution resulting from this process is statistically consistent with observations. We discuss the implications of this model for the number of objects in the scattered disk in the text. The model predicts a temporal variation in the influx of HTCs with a period of ∼118 Myr. At the peak, the model predicts that there should be roughly 10 times as many HTCs as currently observed (i.e., there should be weak HTC showers). However, the model may inflate the importance of these showers because it does not include the effects of passing stars and giant molecular clouds.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号