Decoding Debris System Substructures: Imprints of Planets/Planetesimals and Signatures of Extrinsic Influences on Material in Ring-Like Disks
Abstract
How do circumstellar (CS) disks evolve and form planetary systems? Is our solar system's two-component debris disk (DD) typical? Are planets implicated by evidence of dynamical stirring in disks? Are DD architectures correlated with stellar mass? To address these highly-compelling questions of fundamental astrophysical import, we obtained deep follow-up HST/STIS coronagraphic imagery of five intermediate-inclination ring-like DDs. By combining data from two coronagraphic apertures we obtain images with unprecedented clarity, sensitivity, and photometric efficacy. We discover a scattered light counterpart to the dust disk previously seen in the mid-IR only in HD 141569 A interior to the 2 rings previously imaged in scattered light. We also place refined optical limits on planets in that system. For HR 4796 A we detect outer nebulosity extending as far as 10 arc seconds from the star, and compare it with other systems with distant dust. We report on early stages of analysis for our other 3 program stars.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #227
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22734310G