The Mass Disruption of Oort Cloud Comets
Harold F. Levison,1*
Alessandro Morbidelli,2
Luke Dones,1
Robert Jedicke,3
Paul A. Wiegert,4
William F. Bottke Jr.1
We have calculated the number of dormant, nearly
isotropic Oort cloud comets in the solar system by (i) combining
orbital distribution models with statistical models of dormant comet
discoveries by well-defined surveys and (ii) comparing the model
results to observations of a population of dormant comets. Dynamical
models that assume that comets are not destroyed predict that we should have discovered ~100 times more dormant nearly isotropic comets than
are actually seen. Thus, as comets evolve inward from the Oort cloud,
the majority of them must physically disrupt.
1 Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut
Street, Suite 426, Boulder, CO 80302, USA.
2 Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, B. P. 4229, 06034 Nice Cedex 4, France.
3 Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
4 Department of Physics, Queen's University,
Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
*
To whom correspondence should be sent. E-mail:
hal{at}gort.boulder.swri.edu
