Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Jul 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005hst..prop10539s&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #10539
Physics
Optics
Hst Proposal Id #10539 Interstellar And Intergalactic Medium
Scientific paper
Fifteen percent of bright main sequence stars possess dusty circumstellar debris disks revealed by far-infrared photometry. These disks are signposts of planetary systems: collisions among larger, unseen parent bodies maintain the observed dust population against losses to radiation pressure and P-R drag. Images of debris disks at optical, infrared, and millimeter wavelengths have shown central holes, rings, radial gaps, warps, and azimuthal asymmetries which indicate the presence of planetary mass perturbers. Such images provide unique insights into the structure and dynamics of exoplanetary systems. Relatively few debris disks have been spatially resolved. Only nine have ever been resolved at any wavelength, and at wavelengths < 10 microns {where subarcsec resolution is available}, only seven: beta Pictoris, HR 4796, HD 141569, AU Mic, HD 107146, HD 92945, and Fomalhaut. Imaging of many other debris disk targets has been attempted with various HST cameras/coronagraphs and adaptive optics, but without success. The key property which renders a debris disk observable in scattered light is its dust optical depth. The seven disks imaged so far all have a dust excess luminosity > 0.01% that of the central star; no disks with smaller optical depths have been detected. Most main sequence stars known to meet this requirement have already been observed, so future progress in debris disk imaging depends on discovering additional stars with large infrared excess. The Spitzer Space Telescope offers the best opportunity in 20 years to identify new examples of high optical depth debris disk systems. We propose ACS coronagraphic imaging of nine bright, new debris disks uncovered during the first year of the Spitzer mission. Our goal is to obtain the first resolved images of these disks at 3 AU resolution, define the disk sizes and orientations, and uncover disk substructures indicative of planetary perturbations. The results should double the number of debris disks observed at 0.06" resolution, and open a wider window into the structure of planetary systems.
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