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Register a new userActivity of 50 Long-Period Comets Beyond 5.2 AU
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Remote investigations of the ancient solar system matter has been traditionally carried out through the observations of long-period (LP) comets that are less affected by solar irradiation than the short-period counterparts orbiting much closer to the Sun. Here we summarize the results of our decade-long survey of the distant activity of LP comets. We found that the most important separation in the dataset is based on the dynamical nature of the objects. Dynamically new comets are characterized by a higher level of activity on average: the most active new comets in our sample can be characterized by afrho values >3--4 higher than that of our most active returning comets. New comets develop more symmetric comae, suggesting a generally isotropic outflow. Contrary to this, the coma of recurrent comets can be less symmetrical, ocassionally exhibiting negative slope parameters, suggesting sudden variations in matter production. The morphological appearance of the observed comets is rather diverse. A surprisingly large fraction of the comets have long, teniouos tails, but the presence of impressive tails does not show a clear correlation with the brightness of the comets.
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We simulate the passage through the Sun-Jupiter system of interstellar objects (ISOs) similar to 1I/`Oumuamua or 2I/Borisov. Capture of such objects is rare and overwhelmingly from low incoming speeds onto orbits akin to those of known long-period comets. This suggests that some of these comets could be of extra-solar origin, in particular inactive ones. Assuming ISOs follow the local stellar velocity distribution, we infer a volume capture rate of $0.051,mathrm{au}^3 mathrm{yr}^{-1}$. Current estimates for orbital lifetimes and space densities then imply steady-state captured populations of $sim10^2$ comets and $sim10^5$ `Oumuamua-like rocks, of which 0.033% are within 6au at any time.
The solar systems Oort cloud can be perturbed by the Galactic tide and by individual passing stars. These perturbations can inject Oort cloud objects into the inner parts of the solar system, where they may be observed as the long-period comets (periods longer than 200 years). Using dynamical simulations of the Oort cloud under the perturbing effects of the tide and 61 known stellar encounters, we investigate the link between long-period comets and encounters. We find that past encounters were responsible for injecting at least 5% of the currently known long-period comets. This is a lower limit due to the incompleteness of known encounters. Although the Galactic tide seems to play the dominant role in producing the observed long-period comets, the non-uniform longitude distribution of the cometary perihelia suggests the existence of strong -- but as yet unidentified -- stellar encounters or other impulses. The strongest individual future and past encounters are probably HIP 89825 (Gliese 710) and HIP 14473, which contribute at most 8% and 6% to the total flux of long-period comets, respectively. Our results show that the strength of an encounter can be approximated well by a simple proxy, which will be convenient for quickly identifying significant encounters in large data sets. Our analysis also indicates a smaller population of the Oort cloud than is usually assumed, which would bring the mass of the solar nebula into line with planet formation theories.
The long-term dynamics of Oort cloud comets are studied under the influence of both the radial and the vertical components of the Galactic tidal field. Sporadic dynamical perturbation processes are ignored, such as passing stars, since we aim to study the influence of just the axisymmetric Galactic tidal field on the cometary motion and how it changes in time. We use a model of the Galaxy with a disc, bulge and dark halo, and a local disc density, and disc scale length constrained to fit the best available observational constraints. By integrating a few million of cometary orbits over 1 Gyr, we calculate the time variable flux of Oort cloud comets that enter the inner Solar System, for the cases of a constant Galactic tidal field, and a realistically varying tidal field which is a function of the Suns orbit. The applied method calculates the evolution of the comets by using first-order averaged mean elements. We find that the periodicity in the cometary flux is complicated and quasi-periodic. The amplitude of the variations in the flux are of order 30%. The radial motion of the Sun is the chief cause of this behaviour, and should be taken into account when the Galactic influence on the Oort cloud comets is studied.
We introduce a new technique to estimate the comet nuclear size frequency distribution (SFD) that combines a cometary activity model with a survey simulation and apply it to 150 long period comets (LPC) detected by the Pan-STARRS1 near-Earth object survey. The debiased LPC size-frequency distribution is in agreement with previous estimates for large comets with nuclear diameter $>sim 1$~km but we measure a significant drop in the SFD slope for small objects with diameters $<1$~km and approaching only $100$~m diameter. Large objects have a slope $alpha_{big} = 0.72 pm 0.09 (stat.) pm 0.15 (sys.)$ while small objects behave as $alpha_{small} = 0.07 pm 0.03 (stat.) pm 0.09 (sys.)$ where the SFD is $propto 10^{alpha H_N}$ and $H_N$ represents the cometary nuclear absolute magnitude. The total number of LPCs that are $>1$~km diameter and have perihelia $q<10$~au is $0.46 pm 0.15 times 10^9$ while there are only $2.4 pm 0.5 (stat.) pm 2 (sys.) times 10^9$ objects with diameters $>100$~m due to the shallow slope of the SFD for diameters $<1$~m. We estimate that the total number of `potentially active objects with diameters $ge 1$~km in the Oort cloud, objects that would be defined as LPCs if their perihelia evolved to $<10$~au, is $(1.5pm1)times10^{12}$ with a combined mass of $1.3pm0.9 , M_{Earth}$. The debiased LPC orbit distribution is broadly in agreement with expectations from contemporary dynamical models but there are discrepancies that could point towards a future ability to disentangle the relative importance of stellar perturbations and galactic tides in producing the LPC population.
Comet 2I/Borisov, the first unambiguous interstellar comet ever found, was discovered in August 2019 at $sim3$ au from the Sun on its inbound leg. No pre-discovery detection beyond 3 au has yet been reported, mostly due to the comets proximity to the Sun as seen from the Earth. Here we present a search for pre-discovery detections of comet Borisov using images taken by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), Pan-STARRS and Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), with a further comprehensive follow-up campaign being presented in citet{Bolin2019}. We identified comet Borisov in ZTF images taken in May 2019 and use these data to update its orbit. This allowed us to identify the comet in images acquired as far back as December 2018, when it was 7.8 au from the Sun. The comet was not detected in November 2018 when it was 8.6 au from the Sun, possibly implying an onset of activity around this time. This suggests that the activity of the comet is either driven by a more volatile species other than H$_2$O, such as CO or CO$_2$, or by exothermic crystallization of amorphous ice. We derive the radius of the nucleus to be $<7$ km using the non-detection in November 2018, and estimate an area of $sim0.5$---$10 mathrm{km^2}$ has been active between December 2018 and September 2019, though this number is model-dependent and is highly uncertain. The behavior of comet Borisov during its inbound leg is observationally consistent with dynamically new comets observed in our solar system, suggesting some similarities between the two.
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