1. The orbit and size-frequency distribution of long period comets observed by Pan-STARRS1
- Author
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C. L. Waters, Paul Wiegert, Nick Kaiser, R. J. Wainscoat, K. C. Chambers, L. Denneau, Robert Jedicke, Robert Weryk, Benjamin Boe, Rolf-Peter Kudritzki, Karen J. Meech, Eugene A. Magnier, Institute for Astronomy [Honolulu], University of Hawai‘i [Mānoa] (UHM), University of Western Ontario (UWO), Astrophysique, Laboratoire de physique de l'ENS - ENS Paris (LPENS (UMR_8023)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7), Fédération de recherche du Département de physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure - ENS Paris (FRDPENS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Fédération de recherche du Département de physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure - ENS Paris (FRDPENS), and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Physics ,Absolute magnitude ,Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,[PHYS.ASTR.EP]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Earth and Planetary Astrophysics [astro-ph.EP] ,Drop (liquid) ,Comet ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Long period ,0103 physical sciences ,Size frequency ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
We introduce a new technique to estimate the comet nuclear size frequency distribution (SFD) that combines a cometary activity model with a survey simulation and apply it to 150 long period comets (LPC) detected by the Pan-STARRS1 near-Earth object survey. The debiased LPC size-frequency distribution is in agreement with previous estimates for large comets with nuclear diameter $>\sim 1$~km but we measure a significant drop in the SFD slope for small objects with diameters $1$~km diameter and have perihelia $q100$~m due to the shallow slope of the SFD for diameters $, accepted for publication in Icarus
- Published
- 2019