A possible comet and asteroid link in the formation of comets

IRAS data on particles in the asteroid belt and 'cirrus' clouds at large heliocentric distances are used as the bases for a model of ongoing comet production. It is noted that many particles in the solar system have a radiation pressure/gravitational attraction ratio of 0.5, a condition that holds true for particles in the asteroid belt. Collisionally disturbed into eccentric orbits, the particles could collect frosty grains in the outermost solar system. IRAS revealed the presence of many of these grains in the asteroid belt. It is numerically shown that the agglomeration of many subkilometer radius asteroids deflected into the outer solar system by orbital perturbations induced by Jupiter could provide a nucleating location for the outwardly-migrated grains. Techniques which could be employed to test the hypothesis are discussed.