A population of comets in the main asteroid belt

被引：345

作者：

Hsieh, HH ^{[1
]}

Jewitt, D ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Hawaii, Inst Astron, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA

来源：

SCIENCE | 2006年 / 312卷 / 5773期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1126/science.1125150

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Comets are icy bodies that sublimate and become active when close to the Sun. They are believed to-originate in two cold reservoirs beyond the orbit of Neptune: the Kuiper Belt (equilibrium temperatures of similar to 40 kelvin) and the Oort Cloud (similar to 10 kelvin). We present optical data showing the existence of a population of comets originating in a third reservoir: the main asteroid belt. The main-belt comets are unlike the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud comets in that they likely formed where they currently reside and may be collisionally activated. The existence of the mainbelt comets lends new support to the idea that main-belt objects could be a major source of terrestrial water.

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页码：561 / 563

页数：3

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