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The Asteroidal Planet as the Origin of Comets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Thomas C. Van Flandern
Thomas C. Van Flandern*
Affiliation:
U.S. Naval ObservatoryWashington, D.C. 20390

Abstract

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Recently, M. W. Ovenden has raised seemingly plausible dynamical arguments which suggest that a 90-earth-mass planet existed in the present location of the asteroid belt until 16×106 years ago, and then rapidly disintegrated. He mentions supporting evidence from the cosmic ray exposure ages of chondritic meteorites. If the long-period comets originated from the recent disintegration of such a planet, several otherwise improbable characteristics of their orbits would be predicted, including a tendency for those orbits which are least perturbed to return to the site of the original break-up. In this investigation, we compare observed characteristics of long-period comet orbits with expected characteristics, based on the missing planet hypothesis. The conclusion is that long-period comet orbits are wholly consistent with the hypothesis; indeed, certain of their characteristics are difficult to explain in any other way.

Type
Part I. Planetary Theory and Analytical Methods
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 41: Dynamics of Planets and Satellites and Theories of their Motion , 1978 , pp. 89 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1978

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