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1. Orbital Data on the Existence of Oort’s Cloud of Comets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

B. G. Marsden

Abstract

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Oort’s work on the cometary cloud is reviewed and extended using new data from 99 comets with high-quality orbits. These data clearly show the pronounced pile-up of the “original” reciprocals of the semi-major axes at values of less than 0.000100 AU-1. This concentration is found to be even more striking for comets of large perihelion distance, and the possible significance of this is discussed. Lyttleton’s criticisms of the concept of the Oort cloud (or, as only he calls it, “shell”) are reviewed and dismissed as largely irrelevant. A set of data on 96 comets with orbits of second-class quality is also considered.

Type
Part II. The Orbital Evolution of Comets
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 39: Comets, Asteroids, Meteorites: Interrelations, Evolution and Origins , December 1977 , pp. 79 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © A.H. Delsemme 1977

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