Td. Swindle et Da. Kring, IMPLICATIONS OF SMALL COMETS FOR THE NOBLE-GAS INVENTORIES OF EARTH AND MARS, Geophysical research letters, 24(24), 1997, pp. 3113-3116
Frank et al. [1986a,b] proposed the possibility of large numbers of sm
all comets impacting the Earth. Using the parameters for the small com
ets suggested by Frank and Sigwarth [1993], we find that, over the lif
etime of the solar system, such small comets would deliver far more Ar
, Kr, and Xe to the atmospheres of Earth and Mars than those atmospher
es presently contain if, as Frank and Sigwarth [1993] assumed, the sma
ll comets formed in very cold regions far from the Sun. Comets can be
greatly depleted in noble gases if they form relatively close to the S
un (for example, near Jupiter), but this source region is inconsistent
with other features of the proposed model. Alternatively, if the come
ts did form in very cold regions far from the Sun, the current flux wo
uld have to be at least a factor of 30,000 higher than the long-term a
verage.