Where are the missing comets?

2002/06/24 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronomia

The Halley comet seen in the image visits us every 76 years (approximately), but many others pass once and disappear. Most of the comets that pass through our environment come from the Oort cloud, located at the end of the solar system. Some have very long periods and only occasionally pass near the Earth, but others, like Halley's comet, visit us more often. The truth is that they are much less than we should theoretically have visitors.

According to the models that announce the evolution and distribution of comets, we would have to see 100 times more comets of the Earth with short period orbits. And it is not because it seems that a couple of orbits are made and destroyed. This has been said by at least American researchers in the journal Science.

Another theory says that comets lose the ability to produce luminous tails and that is why we see them less than there are. But Levison's team believes they break into small invisible fragments.

They have performed computer simulations. In the Oort cloud thousands of comets have been created and their evolution calculated, obtaining that 99% dissolve.