A follow-up study of warm debris disks discovered in the Spitzer archive: investigation of the structure and origin of the closest analogues of the inner Solar System

Details A follow-up study of warm debris disks discovered in the Spitzer archive: investigation of the structure and origin of the closest analogues of the inner Solar System A follow-up study of warm debris disks discovered in the Spitzer archive: investigation of the structure and origin of the closest analogues of the inner Solar System

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop50538k&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #50538

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Scientific paper

Warm debris disks are thought to be the closest analogues of our inner Solar System. The number of known warm disks is very low, only a dozen of observed systems harbour such structures. The aim of our proposal is to identify and characterize a large number of new disks in a carefully selected sample of 30 warm disk candidates. The input sample of F, G, and K stars is the outcome of our extensive preparatory work on archival Spitzer data. We propose to use IRS and MIPS observations to confirm the existence of warm disk around each system, and characterize them in terms of disk structure and grain properties. On the basis of the new observations, we will comment on how frequent warm disks are around solar-type stars. This will provide information on the solid matter content in the most interesting inner regions of exosolar systems, where Earth-like planets might be currently forming. We will also give hints on the origin of dust in warm debris disks, by investigating whether the fractional luminosity of the system is compatible with the prediction of a steady state evolutionary model for that specific age. Systems inconsistent with this scenario might represent a rare transient event, like an asteroid belt collision or an analogue of the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB). From our observations we may collect arguments for either of the two events, in particular by analysing the presence of far-infrared excess and mid-infrared spectral features. We may be able to comment on whether LHB-type events - which probably deplete the outer planetesimal belt as it happened in the Solar System - could occur in other systems, and whether they represent the rule or the exception. Since the main part of the program will be the IRS observations, only Spitzer could do the proposed study. The requested time is 25.9 hours.

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