Dynamics and orbital evolution of Oort cloud comets

Abstract

Investigators generally conjecture a steady flux of new comets from the Oort cloud through the inner Solar system. Due to gravitational perturbations by major planets these objects may escape, become long period comets (LPCs) if their orbital periods P are larger than 200yr or become short period comets (SPCs) when their period is less than 200yr. SPCs are further divided in two types: the Halley type comets (HT, for P > 20yr) and the Jupiter family comets (JF, for P < 20yr).