Second-generation Fragments of a Comet Split in the Making: The Liller Family Comets

Abstract

Kreutz sungrazers and Kracht, Marsden, and Meyer sunskirters are regarded as second- or third-generation fragments of split comets. First-generation fragments have been observed to form, for example, in the cases of comets 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3, D/1993 F2 (Shoemaker–Levy 9), and 332P/Ikeya–Murakami. Here, we compare relevant orbital correlation properties (the distributions of mutual nodal distances, and the angular separation of perihelia and poles) of the Liller family comets—C/1988 A1 (Liller), C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), C/2015 F3 (SWAN), C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS), and C/2023 V5 (Leonard)—with those of fragments of 332P and some Kreutz sungrazers to show that they are first-generation cometary fragments in the process of producing the second-generation.