Comet Hazard to the Earth
Abstract
Migration of trans-Neptunian objects to the Earth is considered. Due to the gravitational influence of large trans-Neptunian objects and mutual collisions, some objects can get such orbits, from which they can be moved inside the Solar System under the gravitational influence of planets. About 10-20% or even more 1-km Earth-crossers could have come from the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt and can move in Jupiter-crossing orbits. The number of former trans-Neptunian objects that cross the Earth's orbit moving in orbits with aphelia inside Jupiter's orbit can be of the same order of magnitude. A total mass of icy planetesimals delivered to the Earth during formation of the giant planets can be about the mass of the Earth's oceans.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0108187,
title = {Comet Hazard to the Earth},
author = {S. I. Ipatov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0108187},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
12 pages, in press in "Advances in Space Research" (Proc. of COSPAR-2000, Warsaw)