1988/05/01 by Martin J. Duncan, Thomas Quinn, Scott Tremaine · 17 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Planetary Science and Exploration #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · doi:10.1086/185162
openalex publication_date 1988/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
The authors present the key results of an extensive series of numerical simulations of the evolution of comet orbits due to the gravitational perturbations of the giant planets. The results show that the inclination distribution of comets with large perihelion (q ≤ 30 AU) that evolve to observable comets (i.e., those with q ≤ 1.5 AU) is approximately preserved. Thus, the short-period (SP) comets, which are mostly in prograde, low-inclination orbits, cannot arise from gravitational scattering of any spherical population of comets (such as the Oort cloud). However, the distribution of orbital elements of SP comets arising from a population of low-inclination Neptune-crossing comets is in excellent agreement with observations. It is concluded that the SP comets arise from a cometary belt in the outer solar system.