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The influx rate of long-period comets in the Earth's neighborhood and their debris contribution to the interplanetary medium
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2015
Abstract
We analyze the flux of new and evolved long-period comets (LPCs) reaching the Earth's neighborhood (perihelion distances q < 1.3 AU), their physical lifetimes, and their implications as regards to the amount of meteoritic matter that is being deposited in the near-Earth region. The flux of LPCs with q < 1.3 au is found to be of about 340 ± 40, brighter than absolute total magnitude 8.6 (radius R ~ 0.6 km) (Fernández and Sosa 2012). Bearing in mind that most of these comets disintegrate into meteoritic matter, this represents a large contribution to the interplanetary dust complex which requires an amount of matter of about 10 tons s−1 to keep it in steady state. These aspects, as well as the impact rate with Earth of meteoroids of LPC origin, will be discussed in this presentation.
- Type
- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 10 , Highlights H16: Highlights of Astronomy , August 2012 , pp. 140
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2015