Ultra-distant Comets

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed discoveries of comets exhibiting activity at never-before-seen heliocentric distances on the way from the Oort cloud to perihelion. Deeply frozen for most of their lifetimes, these small bodies are likely the most pristine objects in our solar system that have undergone minimal thermal evolution. As such, they offer invaluable opportunities to probe the early history of our solar system. Despite their undeniable scientific importance,this distant population remains poorly understood due to the nascent stage of their discovery. In this talk, I will review the current state of knowledge and open questions surrounding these elusive objects.

报告人简介:许文韬，现任澳门科技大学月球与行星科学国家重点实验室助理教授，于2012年本科毕业于武汉大学物理学院，2019年于加州大学洛杉矶获行星科学博士，2019-2020年为夏威夷大学天文研究所近地小行星追踪博士后。2021年荣获51166号小行星命名。研究太阳系及星际小天体的物理特性及动力学行为，发表同行评审文章43篇。