Dynamical evolution of 93 Damocloids

Abstract

DYNAMICAL EVOLUTION OF 93 DAMOCLOIDS, by Kovalenko N.S., Guliyev R.A., Churyumov K.I., Ponomarenko V.A., Kleshchenok V.V. Orbital evolution of Damocloides was integrated for 1 Gyr forward and backward in time, by using SWIFTER package. These asteroids move along highly inclined orbits (some of them are on retrograde orbits), and have Tisserand invariant T_j ≤ 2 (while Jupiter family comets have T_j > 2). Damocloides are believed to be transitional population between Oort cloud cometary nuclei and Halley type comets (those also have Tisserand parameter T_j ≤ 2), or inactive nuclei of Halley type comets. It is shown, the dynamical lifetime of the population is about 10^6 – 10^7 years. Results of the simulation for different orbital parameters are discussed.

Keywords

• orbital evolution
• Damocloides
• retrograde motion