Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115

Details Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115 Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115

2007-04-04

arxiv.org/abs/0704.0645v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

4 pages, 3 figures, ApJ Letters, accepted

Scientific paper

10.1086/518652

We report the first scattered light detection of a dusty debris disk surrounding the F2V star HD 15115 using the Hubble Space Telescope in the optical, and Keck adaptive optics in the near-infrared. The most remarkable property of the HD 15115 disk relative to other debris disks is its extreme length asymmetry. The east side of the disk is detected to ~315 AU radius, whereas the west side of the disk has radius >550 AU. We find a blue optical to near-infrared scattered light color relative to the star that indicates grain scattering properties similar to the AU Mic debris disk. The existence of a large debris disk surrounding HD 15115 adds further evidence for membership in the Beta Pic moving group, which was previously argued based on kinematics alone. Here we hypothesize that the extreme disk asymmetry is due to dynamical perturbations from HIP 12545, an M star 0.5 degrees (0.38 pc) east of HD 15115 that shares a common proper motion vector, heliocentric distance, galactic space velocity, and age.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-292585