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The authors estimate that there is ~1 such object within 1 AU of the sun at any given time. So, more common than we previously expected, but not exactly teeming
by Tossrock 9y ago
The authors estimate that there is ~1 such object within 1 AU of the sun at any given time. So, more common than we previously expected, but not exactly teeming. You're right that it was detected due to its nearness though - it was picked up in a routine near-Earth object survey by Pan-STARRS
- ldenneau 9y agoIf there is one within 1 AU of the Sun at any given time, then there are ~10^16 of them within a sphere out to the nearest star. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's teeming or not.
- Tossrock 9y agoDr. Denneau, what an honor that you dropped by this comment thread! Congratulations on the publication, it's a truly groundbreaking discovery :) 10^16 is pretty mindbogglingly huge, but then again so is 4 light years...
- soVeryTired 9y agoSurely they're more dense near the sun? Not sure you can assume a uniform spacing and not account for the gravitational attraction. But I'm sure you know more about this than I do.
- jerf 9y agoIf they're not being captured, they're just being perturbed by the sun a bit, not collected.
- bmm6o 9y ago1 within 1 AU of the sun means that there should be one passing within 0.16 AU of us on a ~yearly basis.