RUNAWAY FRAGMENTATION OF SUNGRAZING COMETS OBSERVED WITH THE SOLAR AND HELIOSPHERIC OBSERVATORY

摘要

The observed clustering of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) sungrazing comets is a product of runaway fragmentation that occurs throughout their orbits about the Sun. Since the sungrazers in tight pairs occasionally appear simultaneously in the field of view of the SOHO coronagraphs, their offsets can be used to determine their separation parameters, including the time of their parent's breakup, by applying the author's standard model for split comets. The fragmentation mode of seven sungrazer pairs is shown to differ fundamentally from that of a SOHO non-Kreutz double comet. Further support for runaway fragmentation is provided by a statistically significant argument that employs an orbit-based search for pairs among the sungrazers.