Related papers: On the Relationship Between Debris Disks and Plane…
Planetesimals -- asteroids and comets -- are the building blocks of planets in protoplanetary discs and the source of dust, ice and gas in debris discs. Along with planets they comprise the left-over material after star formation that…
We consider the observational signatures of giant impacts between planetary embryos. While the debris released in the impact remains in a clump for only a single orbit, there is a much longer lasting asymmetry caused by the fact that all…
(abridged) Infrared excesses associated with debris disk host stars detected so far peak at wavelengths around ~100{\mu}m or shorter. However, six out of 31 excess sources in the Herschel OTKP DUNES have been seen to show significant - and…
We study the dynamical origin of the structures observed in the scattered-light images of the resolved debris disk around HD 141569A. We explore the roles of radiation pressure from the central star, gas drag from the gas disk, and the…
This paper considers the evidence that debris disks are self-stirred by the formation of Plutos. A model for the dust produced during self-stirring is applied to statistics for A stars. As there is no significant difference between excesses…
Multi-wavelength scattered light imaging of debris disks may inform dust properties including typical size and mineral composition. Existing studies have investigated a small set of individual systems across a variety of imaging instruments…
The debris disk around HD 181327 shows a significant asymmetry in its surface brightness profile when viewed in visible light. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope STIS instrument show an arc of approximately 90 degrees of higher…
We review the nearby debris disk structures revealed by multi-wavelength images from Spitzer and Herschel, and complemented with detailed spectral energy distribution modeling. Similar to the definition of habitable zones around stars,…
The presence of debris disks around $\sim$ 1-Gyr-old main sequence stars suggests that an appreciable amount of dust may persist even in mature planetary systems. Here we report the detection of dust emission from 55 Cancri, a star with…
In circumstellar discs, collisional grinding of planetesimals produces second-generation dust. While it remains unclear whether this ever becomes a major component of the total dust content, the presence of such dust, and potentially the…
The first indication of the presence of a circumstellar debris disk is usually the detection of excess infrared emission from the population of small dust grains orbiting the star. This dust is short-lived, requiring continual…
Giant impacts refer to collisions between two objects each of which is massive enough to be considered at least a planetary embryo. The putative collision suffered by the proto-Earth that created the Moon is a prime example, though most…
Over the past fifteen years, surveys mainly at millimeter wavelengths have led to the discovery of $\sim$20 gas-bearing debris disks, most of them surrounding young intermediate-mass stars. Exploring the properties and origin of this gas…
We have observed nearly 200 FGK stars at 24 and 70 microns with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We identify excess infrared emission, including a number of cases where the observed flux is more than 10 times brighter than the predicted…
We report observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) regarding the frequency of 24 micron excess emission toward sun-like stars. Our unbiased sample is comprised of 309 stars with masses 0.7-2.2 Msun and ages from <3 Myr to >3 Gyr…
In our solar system, Mars-sized protoplanets frequently collided with each other during the last stage of terrestrial planet formation called the giant impact stage. Giant impacts eject a large amount of material from the colliding…
While many observed debris disks are thought to have gaps suggestive of the presence of planets, direct imaging surveys do not find many high mass planets in these systems. We investigate if divergent migration is a viable mechanism for…
The cross section of material in debris discs is thought to be dominated by the smallest grains that can still stay in bound orbits despite the repelling action of stellar radiation pressure. Thus the minimum (and typical) grain size…
Optically thin dusty disks around Main Sequence stars consist of debris from catastrophic collisions or from low erosion of long-lived planetesimals. Resolved observations of dusty disks have systematically evidenced asymmetries and annular…
We present Spitzer MIPS observations at 24 um of 37 solar-type stars in the Pleiades and combine them with previous observations to obtain a sample of 71 stars. We report that 23 stars, or 32 +/- 6.8%, have excesses at 24 um at least 10%…