On the Origin of Comets

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Abstract
During the passage of the Sun through a cloud of interstellar dust the particles converge to the accretion axis where their transverse velocities are destroyed by collisions. A stream of dust forms at the axis, and for low relative speed of the Sun and cloud that part of the stream within several hundred astronomical units is captured and flows towards the Sun. Internal gravitation causes the stream to divide into separate segments that contract length-wise. The resulting aggregations are identified with the comets. The disruptive field of the Sun sets an upper limit to the initial length of a segment and thence to the initial mass of a comet. Several thousand such comets could result from a single passage of the Sun through a cloud of moderate dimensions. Owing to the presence of the major planets, some aggregations would have enough angular momentum to avoid falling directly into the Sun, but their initial orbits would be almost line-ellipses. Subsequent perturbations by passing stars when a cornet is at great distance may endow it with greater angular momentum, but for it to have sufficiently small perihelion distance to become visible, the perturbed orbit must still be nearly parabolic. Earlier ideas relating to the origin of comets are briefly discussed.

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