MIPS Survey of Dust Disks around Hot White Dwarfs

Details MIPS Survey of Dust Disks around Hot White Dwarfs MIPS Survey of Dust Disks around Hot White Dwarfs

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40953c&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #40953

Physics

Scientific paper

Spitzer observations of the Helix Nebula have revealed a bright 24 and 70 um source at the central star, a white dwarf (WD) with an effective temperature of 110,000 K. A Spitzer IRS spectrum of this source confirms that the emission is dust continuum. The analysis of Spitzer observations lead to the conclusion that the hot WD is surrounded by a dust disk at a distance of 40-100 AU, and that the dust is freshly produced by collisions of dynamically perturbed Kuiper-Belt-like Objects (KBOs) or comets. The collisions of these KBOs/comets with the central WD or the accretion of the dust may generate the mysterious 1 keV X-ray emission observed from the WD. We propose a MIPS 24 um survey of a sample of hot (>100,000 K) WDs that either are in old planetary nebulae or belong to a variety of spectral classes to search for dust disks up to a distance of 100 AU from the star, with a sensitivity of 34 uJy. Hot WDs provide an opportunity for the last glimpse at the outer planetary systems of stars before they cool and fade into oblivion. The results will be used to study the evolution of planetary systems throughout the stellar lifetime. The proposed survey can test the hypothesis that 1 keV X-rays can be generated by accreting comets or dust, and thus finally solve the mystery of hard X-ray emission from single WDs.

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