Capture of interstellar objects: a source of long-period comets
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
2020-01-08 v2
Abstract
We simulate the passage through the Sun-Jupiter system of interstellar objects (ISOs) similar to 1I/`Oumuamua or 2I/Borisov. Capture of such objects is rare and overwhelmingly from low incoming speeds onto orbits akin to those of known long-period comets. This suggests that some of these comets could be of extra-solar origin, in particular inactive ones. Assuming ISOs follow the local stellar velocity distribution, we infer a volume capture rate of . Current estimates for orbital lifetimes and space densities then imply steady-state captured populations of comets and `Oumuamua-like rocks, of which 0.033% are within 6au at any time.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1910.06338,
title = {Capture of interstellar objects: a source of long-period comets},
author = {Tom Hands and Walter Dehnen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.06338},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS