No cometesimals in the inner solar system

Abstract

Ultraviolet measurements made by Voyager 2, apparently showing a rapid decrease in hydrogen Lyman-alpha emission with distance from the sun, were taken by Donahue et al. (1987) as evidence for a source of atomic hydrogen in the very local interstellar medium (VLISM). The suggested source of the hydrogen is a class of small comets at solar distances of about 1 AU. This claim has been adduced as evidence for a theory that the earth is subject to a large influx of cometary material significantly affecting atmospheric evolution. The Voyager 2 data have been reanalyzed, and it is shown that no source of hydrogen in the VLISM is required other than the inflow of neutral atoms.