Comet Hazard to the Earth

Abstract

Migration of trans-Neptunian objects to the Earth is considered. Due to the gravitational influence of large trans-Neptunian objects and mutual collisions, some objects can get such orbits, from which they can be moved inside the Solar System under the gravitational influence of planets. About 10-20% or even more 1-km Earth-crossers could have come from the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt and can move in Jupiter-crossing orbits. The number of former trans-Neptunian objects that cross the Earth's orbit moving in orbits with aphelia inside Jupiter's orbit can be of the same order of magnitude. A total mass of icy planetesimals delivered to the Earth during formation of the giant planets can be about the mass of the Earth's oceans.

12 pages, in press in "Advances in Space Research" (Proc. of COSPAR-2000, Warsaw)

References in corpus (3)

• Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt II. Fragmentation
• Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt I. Coagulation and Velocity Evolution
• Population of the Scattered Kuiper Belt

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Comet and Asteroid Hazard to the Terrestrial Planets
• Migration processes in the Solar System and their role in the evolution of the Earth and planets
• Migration of Trans-Neptunian Objects to the Terrestrial Planets
• Migration of Jupiter-Family Comets and Resonant Asteroids to Near-Earth Space
• Formation of the Earth and Moon: Influence of Small Bodies
• Number of near-Earth objects and formation of lunar craters over the last billion years
• Collision probabilities of migrating small bodies and dust particles with planets
• Migration of Comets to the Terrestrial Planets