On the Existence of Long-Period Comet Families of the Giant Planets

Abstract

We analyze the minimum orbital intersection distances (MOIDs) for a sample of long-period comets (1360) and the giant planets of the Solar System. Our calculations have revealed a considerable number of long-period comets that may have had close encounters with the giant planets: Jupiter (268), Saturn (176), Uranus (81), and Neptune (75). Among them there are 107 cases where the comet approaches two or more planets. Besides, we have also performed an analysis of the cometary orbits based on Tisserand’s criterion, which showed that more than 10 $$\%$$ of the comets from the group of Jupiter have $$2<T<3$$ . There are such values in slightly smaller quantities in the groups of other planets as well. We have also tested our statistical results and conclusions.