Simulations of the population of Centaurs – I. The bulk statistics

By Jonathan Horner, Nick Evans, M. Bailey. 2004

179 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Large-scale simulations of the Centaur population are carried out. The evolution of 23 328 particles based on the orbits of 32 well-known Centaurs is followed for up to 3 Myr in the forward and backward direction under the influence of the four massive planets. The objects exhibit a rich variety of dynamical behaviour with half-lives ranging from 540 kyr (1996 AR20) to 32 Myr (2000 FZ53). The mean half-life of the entire sample of Centaurs is 2.7 Myr. The data are analysed using a classification scheme based on the controlling planets at perihelion and aphelion, previously given in Horner et al. Transfer probabilities are computed and show the main dynamical pathways of the Centaur population. The total number of Centaurs with diameters larger than 1 km is estimated as ∼44 300, assuming an inward flux of one new short-period comet every 200 yr. The flux into the Centaur region from the Edgeworth‐Kuiper Belt is estimated to be one new object every 125 yr. Finally, the flux from the Centaur region to Earth-crossing orbits is one new Earth-crosser every 880 yr. Ke yw ords: stellar dynamics ‐ celestial mechanics ‐ Kuiper belt ‐ minor planets, asteroids ‐ planets and satellites: general.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/56b25da1d79eccee9e384fa88a4a450a57f08d8f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

Citations in the corpus

THE ACTIVE CENTAURS (2006, background): “Numerical simulations give half-lives from 0.5 Myr to 30 Myr, with average values increasing with semimajor axis and perihelion distance (Horner et al. 2004) and a population median lifetime near 10 Myr (Tiscareno and Malhotra 2003).”
The Scattered Disk as the Source of the Jupiter Family Comets (2008, background): “Horner et al. (2004) also make an estimate of the Centaur population based on dynamical considerations, finding a total number of 4:4 ; 104 objects larger than D 1 km.”
Physical Properties of Kuiper Belt and Centaur Objects: Constraints from the Spitzer Space Telescope (2007, background): “Finally, we briefly discuss the prospects for future thermal observations of these primitive outer solar system objects.”