Hi, gbaikie!

is the NEO population largely from the Main belt or are comets a major source (and is current NEO population high, low, or about the average it's been for the last billion years) . If comets are a significant source is it a random steady stream or are there cyclical events which trigger a large flux of comets- and/or a large comet ever once in a while break up and make lots of comets (similar to Linear but much larger).



Perturbations caused by our gas giants could have an effect on KBOs as for long period comets in the Oort Cloud and even KBOs, perturbations caused by nearby stars (stellar perturbations) could very well cause a bit of chaos inside those belts. I'm not sure that we should call stellar perturbations a cyclical event just yet. It may not even apply to most nearby stars. A good topic to study though.

This page is mostly about Chiron, Chiron seems to be an ex-member of the KBOs, and also a dying comet, but you will also find some very good info/links on the KB and Oort Cloud.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chiron.html

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A very good Kuiper Belt/Oort Cloud page.

Cheers,

Marcia