On the role of collisions with meteoroids in splitting and acceleration of heliocentric velocity of comets

Abstract

The hypothesis on the role of the meteoroid impacts in the comet nuclei splitting as well as acceleration of their heliocentric velocity are considered. Inclinations of the orbits of split comets relative to the movement planes of 100 known meteoroid streams are calculated. The analysis is carried out for the cases: when the cometary nodes are located from the meteoroids orbit < 0.1 AU; MOID-values less than 0.1 AU. In the case of split long-period comets irregularity (maximum near 180°) of the distribution of the inclinations has been found. Comets, constituting this maximum, could have head-on collisions with meteoroids. A similar analysis is carried out relatively to the hyperbolic comets (HCs). Analysis is based on the assumption that the acceleration of the heliocentric velocities of the comet also is caused by collisions with meteoroids. The inclinations of the orbits of 300 HCs relative to 100 known meteoroid streams have the significant maxima in the interval of 90°− 101.5°. Acceleration of comet velocity might be the result of “slanting” collisions with meteoroids.

Keywords

• split comets
• meteoroids
• collisions
• hyperbolic orbits