This is a scatter plot showing the Tisserand invariants TJ and MOIDs with Jupiter for the Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) listed on my other page.
As the plot shows, most JFCs (the black squares) have MOIDs with Jupiter than are less than 1 au. Relatively few have MOIDs as high as 1.5 au, and even fewer above 2.0 au. There are no known JFCs with MOID above 2.4 au (dark grey rectangle).
The plot also shows objects known as Activated Asteroids (AAs; also known sometimes as Main Belt Comets, MBCs). The AAs (open circles) reside in the upper-right part of the plot with un-comet like Tisserands and relatively high Jupiter-MOIDs.
It is interesting to note that there are very few JFCs in a triangular region (light grey triangle) between Tisserands 2.3 and 3.0 and MOIDs 1 to 2.4 au. In earlier versions of this plot, I noted the lack of comets in a rectangular region, but it seems a triangular region is now more prominent to my eye. So, I changed that. The diagonal boundary to the triangle follows the line y = -2x + 7. Note that the placement of the triangle was done completely by eye. It's not a fit!
The isolated JFC just outside the triangle near TJ=3.04 and MOID = 2.35 au is P/2017 S8. The AA/MBC just inside the triangle near TJ=2.96 and MOID = 1.78 au is P/2016 P1. The following other JFCs reside just within the triangle:
Comet q e i TJ MOID
(au) (deg) (au)
219P/LINEAR 2.364 0.353 11.53 2.961 1.13
347P/PANSTARRS 2.224 0.384 11.75 2.947 1.21
P/2006 WY182 (Christensen) 2.796 0.559 26.49 2.460 2.23
Comments are welcome!