Orbit inversion scenarios of minor bodies in retrograde orbit

Small bodies of the Solar System in retrograde orbits, temporarily classified as asteroids, still do not have a consistent origin scenario. We currently know more than 100 objects in orbits similar to comets that have no confirmed activity so far. One of the concepts of their origin is the possibility of orbit inversion (flipping) in the past due to perturbations. In this study, it was decided to examine the efficiency of this mechanism from a statistical point of view. The main objective was to estimate the probability of orbit flipping. For this purpose, a Monte Carlo simulation of the motion of a swarm of objects with a distribution reflecting real observational errors was performed. It allowed to detect potential orbit inversions in the past and to assess the probability of these events quantitatively. It was also possible to find out the existence of factors that could have caused them, for example, by examining the statistics of close approaches and the presence of the strongest retrograde resonances. The asteroids that are most sensitive to orbit flipping have been identified, and special attention has been paid to these cases. There were also some objects found that are not at all prone to orbit inversion. In general, the overall scale of the flipping process is small. For 39 asteroids, most of which have a lifetime of less than 10 My in the past, only a small number could invert their orbits with a probability of more than a few percent. Although the cases of flipping found were interesting, they do not fully explain the mechanism of production of such orbits.