Cometary dust trails. I - Survey

Cometary dust trails furnish insight into the nature, origin, and evolution of comets, as well as into the relationship of comets to both asteroids and the zodiacal dust complex. A several years-long effort has been made to identify all dust trails detected over the course of IRAS observations, as well as to ascertain the comets' parent bodies. On the basis of a total of eight trails associated with known short-period comets, it is inferred that the trail phenomenon is common to all comets of this type; it is further conjectured that spaceborne IR detectors will observe a different ensemble of trails, as other comets pass perihelion.