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The transition between long period comets, short period comets and meteoroid streams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

David W. Hughes
David W. Hughes*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, The University, Sheffield, S3 7RH

Extract

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It has long been realised that Jovian perturbation is the dominant cause of the transition of long period comets (Period > 200 yr) into short period ones (P < 200 yr). When the differences in the detectability of comets in the two groups are taken into account it is clear that the present day flux of long period comets is sufficient to provide the present collection of short period comets in the inner solar system.

The fact that meteoroid streams are produced by decaying short period comets was first recognised around 1866 (see Hughes 1982a). The magnificent display of Leonids in that year enabled the radiant position and time of maximum rate to be easily calculated. Assuming the orbital period to be 33.25 yr Le Verrier (1867) and Schiaparelli (1867) published orbits for the meteoroid stream. The orbit of comet 1866 I, which had been discovered by Guillaume Tempel, from Marseilles on December 19, 1865 and independently by Horace P. Tuttle from Harvard, Massachusetts on January 5, 1866, has been calculated and published by Oppolzer (1867a). Almost to a man Peters (1867), Schiaparelli (1867) and Oppolzer (1867b) realised that the comet and the stream had similar orbits. Since that time many more examples have been put forward, two famous ones being the Perseids and comet Swift-Tuttle (1862 III) and the Eta Aquarids and Orionids both of which have comet Halley (1910 II) as their parent. For more details see Cook (1973).

Type
Section III. Meteor Streams and Interrelations with Minor Planets
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 83: Dynamics of Comets: Their Origin and Evolution , 1985 , pp. 129 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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