MIPS 24 micron observations of h & chi Persei: detecting the debris of terrestrial planet formation at 13 Myr

Details MIPS 24 micron observations of h & chi Persei: detecting the debris of terrestrial planet formation at 13 Myr MIPS 24 micron observations of h & chi Persei: detecting the debris of terrestrial planet formation at 13 Myr

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop50664k&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #50664

Physics

Scientific paper

We propose to build on our successful observational study of the 13 Myr-old Double Cluster h & chi Persei. Using IRAC/MIPS data together with ground-based near-IR imaging and optical spectroscopy, we have (i) discovered 10 stars with clear evidence for terrestrial planet formation, roughly tripling the number of these sources currently known, (ii) developed the first evidence for a clear maximum at 10-20 Myr in the amount of dusty debris from planet formation in stars slightly more massive than the Sun, (iii) provided the first demonstration of a robust relation between the frequency of dust emission and the masses of stars forming planets at 10-15 Myr, and (iv) discovered roughly 25 cluster stars with clear evidence for gaseous circumstellar disks. Here, we request MIPS observations of the low density halo regions surrounding the clusters. Together with MIPS observations of the cluster cores and deep IRAC observations of the clusters and halo, these data will yield a map with a total area of 0.6 sq deg (900 sq pc). Our target MIPS sensitivity, 115 micro-Jy ([24] = 12.0 at 5 sigma), will enable detections of (i) photospheric emission for more than 500 10-20 Myr-old stars with B5 or earlier spectral types and (ii) robust detection of IR excess emission from several hundred debris disk candidates with spectral types F2--K2. In addition to providing improved constraints on the wavelength-dependent evolution timescales of evolved circumstellar disks, these data will probe the terrestrial regions of solar-type stars at a time when we expect Earth-like planets to accumulate most of their final mass. Given current estimates for the rate of terrestrial planet formation in the Double Cluster, these observations will yield unambiguous detections of the debris disk remnants of this process and will provide us with robust estimates for the frequency of terrestrial planet formation in the dense environment of the two clusters and the less dense environment of the halo.

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