Reassessing the Source of Long-Period Comets

Abstract

We present numerical simulations to model the production of observable long-period comets (LPCs) from the Oort Cloud, a vast reservoir of icy bodies surrounding the Sun. We show that inner Oort Cloud objects can penetrate Jupiter's orbit via a largely unexplored dynamical pathway, and they are an important, if not the dominant, source of known LPCs. We use this LPC production to place observationally motivated constraints on the population and mass of the inner Oort Cloud, which are consistent with giant planet formation theory. These constraints indicate that only one comet shower producing late Eocene bombardment levels has likely occurred since the Cambrian Explosion, making these phenomena an improbable cause of additional extinction events.

Originally published in Science (9/4/09), 30 pages, 9 figures, main article and online material combined

References in corpus (3)

• The Formation of the Oort Cloud in Open Cluster Environments
• Injection of Oort Cloud Comets: The Fundamental Role of Stellar Perturbations
• 2006 SQ372: A Likely Long-Period Comet from the Inner Oort Cloud

Cited by in corpus (53)

• Oort Cloud and Scattered Disc formation during a late dynamical instability in the Solar System
• Planetary System Disruption by Galactic Perturbations to Wide Binary Stars
• Origin and Evolution of Short-Period Comets
• Interstellar Interlopers: Number Density and Origins of 'Oumuamua-like Objects
• Sedna and the Oort Cloud Around a Migrating Sun
• Reassessing the formation of the inner Oort cloud in an embedded star cluster
• Origin and evolution of long-period comets
• The origin of interstellar asteroidal objects like 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua
• Properties of the Distant Kuiper Belt: Results from the Palomar Distant Solar System Survey
• New Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects: Towards a Super-Earth in the Outer Solar System
• Evaporation and Accretion of Extrasolar Comets Following White Dwarf Kicks
• The Colors of Extreme Outer Solar System Objects
• The Great Escape III: Placing post-main-sequence evolution of planetary and binary systems in a Galactic context
• Persistent Evidence of a Jovian Mass Solar Companion in the Oort Cloud
• A New High Perihelion Inner Oort Cloud Object: 2015 TG387
• Tidal fragmentation as the origin of 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua)
• Finding the imprints of stellar encounters in long period comets
• The Orbit and Size-Frequency Distribution of Long Period Comets Observed by Pan-STARRS1
• Cometary impactors on the TRAPPIST-1 planets can destroy all planetary atmospheres and rebuild secondary atmospheres on planets f, g, h
• Oort spike comets with large perihelion distances
• 1I/'Oumuamua as an N2 ice fragment of an exo-pluto surface. II. Generation of N2 ice fragments and the origin of 'Oumuamua
• On the formation location of Uranus and Neptune as constrained by dynamical and chemical models of comets
• Giant comets and mass extinctions of life
• Exoplanets Beyond the Solar Neighbourhood: Galactic Tidal Perturbations
• OSSOS: V. Diffusion in the orbit of a high-perihelion distant Solar System object
• Magnitude and size distribution of long-period comets in Earth-crossing or approaching orbits
• Long-term orbital dynamics of trans-Neptunian objects
• Capture of exocomets and the erosion of the Oort cloud due to stellar encounters in the Galaxy
• Where do long-period comets come from? Moving through Jupiter-Saturn barrier
• Exploring the role of the Sun's motion in terrestrial comet impacts
• OSSOS XV: Probing the Distant Solar System with Observed Scattering TNOs
• Discovery of a New Member of the Inner Oort Cloud from The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey
• The Dynamics of Dust Grains in the Outer Solar System
• The stability in the most external region of the Oort Cloud: The evolution of the ejected comets
• The Influence of Outer Solar System Architecture on the Structure and Evolution of the Oort Cloud
• Modeling the Nearly Isotropic Comet Population in Anticipation of LSST Observations
• Perspectives on the distribution of orbits of distant Trans-Neptunian Objects
• On the pollution of white dwarfs by exo-Oort cloud comets
• Orbital precession in the distant solar system; further constraining the Planet Nine hypothesis with numerical simulations
• Eta-Earth Revisited II: Deriving a Maximum Number of Earth-like Habitats in the Galactic Disk
• Sedna and the cloud of comets surrounding the Solar System in Milgromian dynamics
• Predicting the water content of interstellar objects from galactic star formation histories
• The Contribution of Dwarf Planets to the Origin of Jupiter Family Comets
• Secular brightness curves of 272 comets
• Polluting White Dwarfs with Oort Cloud Comets
• Probing Oort Cloud and Local Interstellar Medium Properties via Dust Produced in Cometary Collisions
• Anisotropy of Long-period Comets Explained by Their Formation Process
• Upper limits to the number of Oort Cloud Objects based on serendipitous occultation events search in X-rays
• 94 Ceti: a triple star with a planet and dust disc
• Icy Bodies in the New Solar System
• Galactic Effects on Habitability
• Quantifying Jupiter's influence on the Earth's impact flux: Implications for planetary habitability
• Energetic Feasibility of Redirecting Trans-Neptunian Objects onto Mars-Impacting Orbits: Continuous Thrust and Gravity Assist Trajectories