Ejected from home: C/1980 E1 (Bowell) and C/2024 L5 (ATLAS)

TL;DR

This study investigates the dynamical history of two hyperbolic comets, revealing their ejection mechanisms from the Solar System through planetary encounters, and highlights evolved planetary systems as significant sources of interstellar objects.

Contribution

The paper provides detailed dynamical simulations of two hyperbolic comets, demonstrating planetary encounters as ejection mechanisms and suggesting evolved planetary systems as sources of interstellar objects.

Findings

C/1980 E1 was ejected after an encounter with Jupiter.

C/2024 L5 was scattered out following a flyby to Saturn.

Both comets likely originated from the inner Oort cloud or as inactive Centaurs.

Abstract

Context. Natural interstellar objects do not form isolated in deep space, but escape their natal planetary systems. Early removal from their home star systems via close flybys with still-forming planets could be the dominant ejection mechanism. However, dynamically evolved planetary systems such as the Solar System may also be a significant source of natural interstellar objects. Aims. We studied the dynamical evolution of two unusual Solar System hyperbolic comets, C/1980 E1 (Bowell) and C/2024 L5 (ATLAS), to investigate the circumstances that led them to reach moderate Solar System excess hyperbolic speeds. Methods. We used N-body simulations and statistical analyses to explore the planetary encounters that led to the ejection of C/1980 E1 and C/2024 L5, and studied their pre- and post-encounter trajectories. Results. We confirm that C/1980 E1 reached its present path into interstellar space after an encounter with Jupiter at 0.23 au on December 9, 1980. C/2024 L5 was scattered out of the Solar System following a flyby to Saturn at 0.003 au on January 24, 2022. Integrations backward in time show that C/1980 E1 came from the inner Oort cloud but C/2024 L5 could be a former retrograde, inactive Centaur. The receding velocities of C/1980 E1 and C/2024 L5 when entering interstellar space will be 3.8 and 2.8 km/s, moving towards Aries and Triangulum, respectively. Conclusions. Our results for two comets ejected from the Solar System indicate that dynamically evolved planetary systems can be effective sources of interstellar objects and provide constraints on their velocity distribution.