Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Jul 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009hst..prop12291k&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #12291. Cycle 18
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Debris disks trace the structure, dynamic, and formation of exoplanetary systems. In the cases of Fomalhaut and HR 8799 exoplanets have been imaged at the locations expected from the disk structures. Fifteen percent of main sequence stars possess dusty circumstellar debris disks revealed by far-infrared photometry. These disks are signposts of planetary systems: collisions among larger, unseen parent bodies maintain the observed dust population against losses to radiation pressure and Poynting-Robertson drag. Images of debris disks at optical, infrared, and millimeter wavelengths have shown central holes, rings, radial gaps, warps, and azimuthal asymmetries which indicate the presence of planetary mass perturbers. Only twenty have been spatially resolved at any wavelength, and at wavelengths <10 microns {where subarcsec resolution is available}, only fifteen. Imaging of dozens of other debris disk targets has been attempted with various HST cameras/coronagraphs and adaptive optics, but without success. The key property which renders a debris disk observable in scattered light is its dust optical depth. The sixteen disks imaged so far all have an infrared luminosity > 0.01% that of the central star; no disks with smaller optical depths have been detected. Most nearby, main-sequence stars known to meet this requirement have already been observed, so future progress in debris disk imaging depends on discovering additional stars with large infrared excess. The Spitzer Space Telescope provided the best opportunity in 20 years to identify new examples of high optical depth debris disk systems. We have conducted detailed imaging simulations of debris disks newly identified by Spitzer since 2007, including size, surface brightness, and contrast estimates. From these we have identified ten targets whose disks should be detectable with the STIS coronagraph in roll-subtracted images. In terms of their detectability and resolvability to HST, these are the best remaining targets to emerge from the now-complete Spitzer photometric surveys of nearby main sequence stars. Our goals are to obtain the first resolved images of these disks at 3 AU resolution, define the disk sizes and orientations,and uncover disk substructures indicative of planetary perturbations.;
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