Interstellar Objects Outnumber Solar System Objects in the Oort Cloud

Abstract

Here, we show that the detection of Borisov implies that interstellar objects outnumber Solar system objects in the Oort cloud, whereas the reverse is true near the Sun due to the stronger gravitational focusing of bound objects. This hypothesis can be tested with stellar occultation surveys of the Oort cloud. Furthermore, we demonstrate that $\sim 1\%$ of carbon and oxygen in the Milky Way Galaxy may be locked in interstellar objects, saturating the heavy element budget of the minimum mass Solar nebula model.

4 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

References in corpus (9)

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• Motion of Planetesimals in the Hill Sphere of the Star Proxima Centauri
• Dynamical evolution of massless particles in star clusters with NBODY6++GPU-MASSLESS: II. The long-term evolution of free-floating comets
• Preliminary Evidence That Protoplanetary Disks Eject More Mass Than They Retain