Studying planetary debris disks around isolated, hot white dwarfs

Details Studying planetary debris disks around isolated, hot white dwarfs Studying planetary debris disks around isolated, hot white dwarfs

Jun 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010sptz.prop70012b&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #70012

Physics

Scientific paper

While more than 440 extrasolar planets orbiting main sequence stars have been discovered, the destiny of planetary systems through the late stages of the evolution of their host stars is very uncertain. We identified metal-rich (CaII and MgII emission) gas disks around 5 relatively young, hot white dwarfs, three of which were the subject of a previous Spitzer program in Cycle-5. The Cycle-5 data revealed a large, dusty extension to the gaseous debris disks, likely originating with the tidal breakup of an asteroid left over from an ancient planetary system. Our recent intensive studies of the three original systems have now turned up variability in the line profiles of the gaseous disks, suggesting the exciting possibility that we are witnessing the real-time dynamical evolution of planetary debris around these white dwarfs. We propose to extend this study to two newly-discovered, cooler members of this small sample of objects, to determine whether dust and gas can also coexist around cooler stars. Since these stars should be too cool to produce the observed CaII emission, we suspect that there is additional mechanical heating in these systems, caused by the recent impacts of asteroids. If so, CaII emission would likely be the signature of the youngest, freshest debris disks around these stars.

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