Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T08:46:07.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dynamics, Origin, and Activation of Main Belt Comets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2010

Nader Haghighipour
Nader Haghighipour*
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy and NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The discovery of Main Belt Comets (MBCs) has raised many questions regarding the origin and activation mechanism of these objects. Results of a study of the dynamics of these bodies suggest that MBCs were formed in-situ as the remnants of the break-up of large icy asteroids. Simulations show that similar to the asteroids in the main belt, MBCs with orbital eccentricities smaller than 0.2 and inclinations lower than 25° have stable orbits implying that many MBCs with initially larger eccentricities and inclinations might have been scattered to other regions of the asteroid belt. Among scattered MBCs, approximately 20% reach the region of terrestrial planets where they might have contributed to the accumulation of water on Earth. Simulations also show that collisions among MBCs and small objects could have played an important role in triggering the cometary activity of these bodies. Such collisions might have exposed sub-surface water ice which sublimated and created thin atmospheres and tails around MBCs. This paper discusses the results of numerical studies of the dynamics of MBCs and their implications for the origin of these objects. The results of a large numerical modeling of the collisions of m-sized bodies with km-sized asteroids in the outer part of the asteroid belt are also presented and the viability of the collision-triggering activation scenario is discussed.

Keywords

minor planets: asteroidssolar system: generalmethods: n-body simulations
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S263: Icy Bodies of the Solar System , August 2009 , pp. 207 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

References

Chambers, J. E. 1999, MNRAS, 304, 793CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dohnanyi, J. S. 1969, JGR, 74, 2531CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez, J. A., Gallardo, T., & Brunini, A. 2002, Icarus, 159, 358CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomes, R., Levison, H. F., Tsiganis, K., & Morbidelli, A. 2005, Nature, 435, 466CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haghighipour, N. & Scott, E. R. D. 2008, LPI Contribution 1391, 1679Google Scholar
Haghighipour, N. 2009, to appear in Meteor. Plant. Sci. (arXiv:0910.5746)Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Jewitt, D., & Fernández, Y. R. 2004, AJ, 127, 2997CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, H. H. & Jewitt, D. 2006, Science, 312, 561CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, H. H., Jewitt, D., & Fernández, Y. R., 2008, LPI Contribution, 1405, 8200Google Scholar
Jewitt, D., Yang, B., & Haghighipour, N., 2009, AJ, 137, 4313CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levison, H. F., Bottke, W. F., Gounelle, M., Morbidelli, A., Nesvorný, D., & Tsiganis, K., 2009, Nature, 460, 364CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morbidelli, A., Levison, H. F., Tsiganis, K., & Gomes, R., 2005, Nature, 435, 462CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nesvorný, D. & Morbidelli, A., 1998, AJ, 116, 3029CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nesvorný, D., Bottke, W. F., Vokrouhlicky, D., Sykes, M., Lien, D. J., & Stansberry, J., 2008, LPI Contribution, 1405, 8265.Google Scholar
O'Brien, D. P., Morbidelli, A., & Bottke, W. F., 2007, Icarus 191, 434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schorghofer, N., 2008, ApJ 682, 697CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsiganis, K., Gomes, R., Morbidelli, A., & Levison, H. F., 2005, Nature, 435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar