Exploring a newly discovered debris disk: Gas content and dust mineralogy during the epoch of planet formation.

Details Exploring a newly discovered debris disk: Gas content and dust mineralogy during the epoch of planet formation. Exploring a newly discovered debris disk: Gas content and dust mineralogy during the epoch of planet formation.

Sep 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.3657g&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #3657

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose a comprehensive Spitzer study of a newly discovered debris disk around the M0V star AU Microscopium (GJ 803). AU Mic is a nearby (9.9 pc) member of the Beta Pic moving group, with age 8-20 Myr. This system is unique as it is currently the only known spatially resolved M dwarf debris disk. Recent optical coronagraph observations reveal the existence of a spatially resolved, nearly edge-on dust disk similar to that of beta Pic, but with approximately one third the dust mass. A sub-mm detection at 850 microns confirms the presence of cool dust. Our Spitzer observations will yield the first infrared spectra of dust and gas in a M-dwarf debris disk. AU Mic is a common M0 dwarf, unlike beta Pic, Vega or Fomalhaut, which are A stars, so that observations of its disk may provide better insight to how the majority of planetary systems form and evolve. Our main goals are to use IRS to determine the warm gas content and excitation by directly searching for the pure rotational S(0), S(1) and S(2) lines of H2, and to measure the abundances of minerals from solid state features. The youth of AU Mic makes it an exciting target because Spitzer may witness the planet building process at work in this system. Moreover, our proposed observations will closely match the Spitzer GTO studies of the coeval beta Pictoris system. Together with the beta Pic dataset, our proposed AU Mic observations will permit a comparative study of how the circumstellar environment evolves different around two stars that originate from the same natal cloud.

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