The Drop during Less than 300 Days of a Dusty White Dwarf's Infrared Luminosity
Abstract
We report Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera photometry of WD J0959-0200, a white dwarf that displays excess infrared radiation from a disk, likely produced by a tidally disrupted planetesimal. We find that in 2010, the fluxes in both 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm decreased by ~35% in less than 300 days. The drop in the infrared luminosity is likely due to an increase of the inner disk radius from one of two scenarios: (1) a recent planetesimal impact; (2) instability in the circumstellar disk. The current situation is tantalizing; high-sensitivity, high-cadence infrared studies will be a new tool to study the interplay between a disk and its host white dwarf star.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- September 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/2041-8205/792/2/L39
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1408.1618
- Bibcode:
- 2014ApJ...792L..39X
- Keywords:
-
- circumstellar matter;
- minor planets;
- asteroids: general;
- white dwarfs;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- ApJ Letters, accepted