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Updated: Jul 30, 2026

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Published on: January 21, 2014
Short-Period Comets: Primordial Bodies or Collisional Fragments?
1P. Farinella, Dipartimento di Matematica, Universita di Pisa, Via Buonarroti 2, 56127 Pisa, Italy. D. R. Davis, Planetary Science Institute, 620 North Sixth Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85705-8331, USA.
Abstract:
Modeling results show that collisions among Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects (EKOs), a vast swarm of small bodies orbiting beyond Neptune, have been a major process affecting this population and its progeny, the short-period comets. Most EKOs larger than about 100 kilometers in diameter survive over the age of the solar system, but at smaller sizes collisional breakup is frequent, producing a cascade of fragments having a power law size-frequency distribution. Collisions are also a plausible mechanism for injecting EKOs 1 to 10 kilometers in diameter into dynamical resonances, where they can be transported into the inner solar system to become short-period comets. The fragmental nature of these comets may explain their physical properties, such as shape, color, and strength.
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