A Population of Dusty B Stars in the SMC: The First Extragalactic Debris Disks?

Details A Population of Dusty B Stars in the SMC: The First Extragalactic Debris Disks? A Population of Dusty B Stars in the SMC: The First Extragalactic Debris Disks?

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop50088s&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #50088

Physics

Scientific paper

Using data from the Spitzer Survey of the SMC, we have discovered a population of 120 B stars with large 24 micron excesses. Optical spectroscopy and the IRAC SEDs demonstrate that they are not ordinary YSOs or Be stars. We suggest instead that these objects may be debris disks around massive main sequence stars. Confirmation of this hypothesis would provide one of the only ways to study the process of planet formation in a low-metallicity external galaxy. We propose Spitzer IRS spectroscopy to measure the long-wavelength SED of the dust emission and blue peak-up imaging to better constrain the size of the emitting region around each star. From the mid-infrared SEDs, we will determine the dust temperature, thereby placing strong constraints on its location and relationship to the B stars. If the B stars do indeed host debris disks, they provide perhaps the only plausible method for constraining planet formation in an external galaxy for the foreseeable future.

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