On the detection of a cometary mass distribution

Abstract

The problem of detecting a possible cometary distribution on the fringes of the solar system is examined. The acceleration of a space probe due to a hypothetical cometary mass distribution with the surface density rising to a maximum and subsequently falling off with increasing distance from the sun is analyzed. The total minimum detectable cometary mass for the Pioneer and Mariner spacecraft is estimated on the basis of this model to be on the order of 1000 earth masses. Precision tracking of deep space probes is less sensitive by three orders of magnitude for the detection of an unseen cometary mass distribution at the fringes of the solar system than are the secular perturbations of long-period comets.