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Related papers: Circumstellar Disks at White Dwarfs: Observations

200 papers

Over the past decade, advancement of observational capabilities, specifically the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and SPHERE instrument, alongside theoretical innovations like pebble accretion, have reshaped our…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2024-09-30 Tilman Birnstiel

We report high-resolution spectroscopic observations of WD 1145+017 -- a white dwarf that recently has been found to be transitted by multiple asteroid-sized objects within its tidal radius. We have discovered numerous circumstellar…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-01-20 S. Xu , M. Jura , P. Dufour , B. Zuckerman

Brown dwarfs -- substellar bodies more massive than planets but not massive enough to initiate the sustained hydrogen fusion that powers self-luminous stars -- are born hot and slowly cool as they age. As they cool below about 2,300 K,…

Observations of protoplanetary disks with high angular resolution using an ALMA interferometer showed that ring-shaped structures are often visible in their images, indicating strong disturbances in the disks. The mechanisms of their…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-01-01 Tatiana V. Demidova , Vladimir P. Grinin

The atmospheres of a large proportion of white dwarf stars are polluted by heavy elements that are expected to sink out of visible layers on short timescales. This has been interpreted as a signature of ongoing accretion of debris from…

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…

Dynamically active planetary systems orbit a significant fraction of white dwarf stars. These stars often exhibit surface metals accreted from debris disks, which are detected through infrared excess or transiting structures. However, the…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2024-02-27 S. Bagnulo , J. Farihi , J. D. Landstreet , C. Folsom

Debris disks are the dust disks found around ~20% of nearby main sequence stars in far-IR surveys. They can be considered as descendants of protoplanetary disks or components of planetary systems, providing valuable information on…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2018-12-05 Mark C. Wyatt

Since white dwarfs are small, the contrast between the thermal emission of an orbiting object and a white dwarf is dramatically enhanced compared to a main sequence host. Furthermore, rocky objects much smaller than the moon have no…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-22 Henry Lin , Abraham Loeb

With the first observations of debris disks as well as proposed planets around white dwarfs, the question of how rocky planets around such stellar remnants can be characterized and probed for signs of life becomes tangible. White dwarfs are…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2020-05-06 Thea Kozakis , Zifan Lin , Lisa Kaltenegger

We report the discovery of a white dwarf exhibiting deep, irregularly shaped transits, indicative of circumstellar planetary debris. Using Zwicky Transient Facility DR2 photometry of ZTF$\,$J013906.17+524536.89 and follow-up observations…

Stars and planets form, live, and evolve in unison. Throughout the life of a star, dusty circumstellar discs and stellar outflows influence the further evolution of both the star(s) and their orbiting planet(s). Planet-forming discs, winds…

A significant fraction of white dwarfs show metal lines indicative of pollution with planetary material but the accretion process remains poorly understood. The main aim of this paper is to produce a road-map illustrating several potential…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2021-11-12 Marc G. Brouwers , Amy Bonsor , Uri Malamud

We review recent advances in our understanding of the innermost regions of the circumstellar environment around young stars, made possible by the technique of long baseline interferometry at infrared wavelengths. Near-infrared observations…

While the population of main sequence debris discs is well constrained, little is known about debris discs around evolved stars. This paper provides a theoretical framework considering the effects of stellar evolution on debris discs,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-19 A. Bonsor , M. C. Wyatt

Precession is observed routinely in solid bodies of Solar system and it has been invoked to explain number of phenomena observed in pulsars (i.e. Link 2003, Breton et al. 2008). White dwarfs also have been considered as possible candidates…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2011-11-11 G. Tovmassian , S. Zharikov , V. Neustroev

We present Spitzer Space Telescope data of four isolated white dwarfs that were previously known to harbor circumstellar gaseous disks. IRAC photometry shows a significant infrared excess in all of the systems, SDSS0738+1835, SDSS0845+2257,…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-04 Carolyn Brinkworth , Boris Gaensicke , Jon Girven , Don Hoard , Tom Marsh , Stephen Parsons , Detlev Koester

Many nearby stars are surrounded by a bright ring or disk of cold dust. Our calculations show that these disks and rings of dust are signposts of recent planet formation. Bright rings appear because dust associated with the formation of a…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Scott J. Kenyon , Benjamin C. Bromley

Recent advances in astronomical instrumentation mean that we are now able to image the thermal emission from the disks of dust around main sequence stars that may be the fossil remnants of planetary formation. These observations imply that…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-09-25 Mark C. Wyatt

Detecting gaseous debris disks around white dwarfs offers a unique window into the ultimate fate of planetary systems and the composition of accreted planetary material. Here we present a systematic search for such disks through the Ca II…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2025-10-30 Ziying Ma , Xiaoxia Zhang , Taotao Fang , Junfeng Wang , Jincheng Guo , Xiaochuan Jiang , Zhi-Xiang Zhang , Hu Zou