The capture of comets by swing-by

• Autor(a) principal: Prado,Antonio Fernando Bertachini de Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Broucke,Roger A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Computational & Applied Mathematics
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1807-03022005000100007
• topic: comets; swing-by; restricted problem

In this paper, numerical simulations are made, using the restricted three-body problem as the mathematical model, to calculate the effects of a swing-by with the planet Jupiter in the orbit of a comet. In particular, the orbital elements of the comets are calculated after the passage by Jupiter, the distribution obtained is shown and the probability of capture is calculated as a function of the Jacobian constant of the comet. The results show that the probability of capture goes from 0.2% to 3.6%, depending on the value of the Jacobian constant of the comet. The details of this mechanism and some trajectories are shown. It is also concluded that more than 95% of the captured comets have pericenter distance less than 5 AU (what makes them visible) and that about 70% of them are short-period comets.