The Complete Census of 70 μm-Bright Debris Disks within “The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems” Spitzer Legacy Survey of Sun-like Stars

By L. Hillenbrand, J. Carpenter, J. Kim, M. Meyer, D. Backman, A. Moro-Martin, D. Hollenbach, D. Hines, Ilaria Pascucci, J. Bouwman. 2007

172 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report detection of cool dust surrounding solar-type stars from observations performed as part of the Spitzer Legacy Science Program FEPS. From a sample of 328 stars having ages ~0.003-3 Gyr we have selected sources with 70 μm flux densities indicating excess in their SEDs above expected photospheric emission. Six strong excess sources are likely primordial circumstellar disks, remnants of the star formation process. Another 25 sources having ≥3 σ excesses are associated with dusty debris disks, generated by collisions within planetesimal belts that are possibly stirred by existing planets. Six additional sources with ≥2 σ excesses require confirmation as debris disks. In our analysis, most (>80%) 70 μm excess sources have ≥3 σ excesses at 33 μm as well, while only a minority (<40%) have ≥3 σ excesses at 24 μm. The rising SEDs toward (and perhaps beyond) 70 μm imply dust temperatures < 45–85 K for debris in equilibrium with the stellar radiation field. From fitted single-temperature blackbody models we infer bulk dust properties such as characteristic temperature, location, fractional luminosity, and mass. For > of the debris sources we find that multiple temperature components are suggested, implying a dust distribution extending over many tens of AU. Because the disks are dominated by collisional processes, the parent body (planetesimal) belts may be extended as well. Preliminary assessment of the statistics of cold debris around Sun-like stars shows that ~10% of FEPS targets with masses between 0.6 and 1.8 M☉ and ages between 30 Myr and 3 Gyr exhibit excess 70 μm emission. We find that fractional excess amplitudes appear higher for younger stars and that there may be a trend in 70 μm excess frequency with stellar mass.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7d1717e130022af7533acb101a901fbb6ccebdcb

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Eric Mamajek
2. L. Hillenbrand
3. Inseok Song
4. B. Zuckerman
5. M. Bessell
6. J. H. Rhee
7. S. Kenyon
8. M. Pecaut

Citations in the corpus

• NEW DEBRIS DISKS AROUND YOUNG, LOW-MASS STARS DISCOVERED WITH THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE (2009, unknown): “These “faint disk stars” possess flux excesses that are smaller than have been typically investigated previously with Spitzer at 70 µm (e.g. log(LIR/L∗)&-4, Carpenter et al. 2009; Hillenbrand et al. 2008; Trilling et al. 2008; Bryden et al. 2006; Beichman et al. 2006a).”
• Debris disc stirring by secular perturbations from giant planets (2009, methodology): “…this, we calculated the minimumxm required for a disc to self stir in less than the system age, for discs around 23 FGK stars and 35 A stars with published 24/25 and 70/60 micron excesses (Moóret al. 2006; Beichman et al. 2006; Su et al. 2006; Trilling et al. 2007; Hillenbrand et al. 2008).”
• Variations on Debris Disks: Icy Planet Formation at 30-150 AU for 1-3 M☉ Main-Sequence Stars (2008, methodology): “These calculations are the first to explain the ‘‘rise and fall of debris disks’’ around A-type stars (Currie et al. 2008a) and the apparent peak in the 70Y160 mexcesses of G-type stars with ages of 100 Myr (Hillenbrand et al. 2008).”
• THE TUCANA/HOROLOGIUM, COLUMBA, AB DORADUS, AND ARGUS ASSOCIATIONS: NEW MEMBERS AND DUSTY DEBRIS DISKS (2011, background): “Neither listing Young, nearby stellar associations 13 contains stars in the AB Dor Association although a few such stars appear in Spitzer papers by Plavchen et al. (2009), Carpenter et al. (2009), and Hillenbrand et al. (2008).”
• Improved Age Estimation for Solar-Type Dwarfs Using Activity-Rotation Diagnostics (2008, background): “…solar-type stars between ∼3 Myr and ∼3 Gyr (Meyer et al. 2004; Kim et al. 2005; Stauffer et al. 2005; Hines et al. 2006; Meyer et al. 2006; Silverstone et al. 2006; Hines et al. 2007; Moro-Mart́ın et al. 2007; Bouwman et al. 2008; Meyer et al. 2008; Hillenbrand et al. 2008; Carpenter et al. 2009).”