Search for Vulcanoid Asteriods - Page 6

Do Vulcanoids Exist? - The On-going Debate

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  • Evens and Tabachnik model (2000)
    • > 50m Vulcanoids can exist 5 billion years in Vulcanoid Zone

  • Vokrouhlicky, Farinella & Bottke (2000 paper)
    • Vulcanoids should be pushed out of zone in 1 billion years due to Yarkovsky effect
    • Argue that Mercury bombardment does not support a significant primordial Vulcanoid population

  • Durda’s team established a Vulcanoid brightness limit
    • Used SOHO data to show no Vulcanoids brighter than +8.0
      • If Vulcanoids look like Mercury: must be < 20 km to 60 km in diameter
      • If the largest Vulcanoid was just under their size limit, then 1800 to 42000 Vulcanoids > 1-km in diameter might exist due to power law
By Landon Curt Noll: for the SEC 2007 conference.

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