A Complete Census of Warm Debris Disks

Details A Complete Census of Warm Debris Disks A Complete Census of Warm Debris Disks

Jun 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010sptz.prop70076s&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #70076

Mathematics

Logic

Scientific paper

Debris disks are our best means to observe planetary system evolution after the protoplanetary phase. Warm debris disks are especially interesting because they trace material in the terrestrial planet zones analogous to our inner solar system. Their short dynamical time scales make them proxies for high levels of gravitational stirring by massive planets or even collisions between large planetesimals. Nearly 3000 field stars were measured by Spitzer at 24 microns to search for debris disks. We have been funded under the NASA ADP to reduce these measurements uniformly and to photometric accuracies of better than 1% rms. We are committed to providing this unique Spitzer legacy for open community access, in support of programs with Herschel and eventually with JWST, SPICA, and far-future missions. However, as a result of the high accuracy we have achieved at 24 microns, identifying weak excesses and warm systems is limited by the quality of the near infrared measurements used to extrapolate the photospheric levels. Completing the Spitzer legacy requires IRAC 3.6 micron observations, which are capable of measuring the photospheric level to 1% or better, allowing identification of 24-micron excesses at the 5% level (3-sigma). Measurements at this level are required for a complete census of warm disks, making full use of the capabilities of Spitzer and Herschel at 70 microns. We will use the full population of warm disks to test the most widely accepted paradigm for disk evolution, that it is dominated by monotonic evolution from the protoplanetary stage. The deep and complete sampling of warm systems will help identify suitable targets for exoplanet searches. Our program also prepares for JWST, which will be capable of obtaining spectra of these warm disks to study mineralogical features. The warm-mission IRAC measurements are therefore a critical part of taking full advantage of the huge investment in Spitzer cold-mission time to use debris disks to study planetary system evolution.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

A Complete Census of Warm Debris Disks 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 A Complete Census of Warm Debris Disks, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Complete Census of Warm Debris Disks will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1598119