Related papers: Dusty Planetary Systems
Protoplanetary disks composed of dust and gas are ubiquitous around young stars and are commonly recognized as nurseries of planetary systems. Their lifetime, appearance, and structure are determined by an interplay between stellar…
The dust measured in debris disks traces the position of planetesimal belts. In our Solar System, we are also able to measure the largest planetesimals directly and can extrapolate down to make an estimate of the dust. The zodiacal dust…
Using ISO-ISOPHOT we carried out a survey of almost 150 stars to search for evidence of emission from dust orbiting young main sequence stars, both in clusters and isolated systems. Over half of the detections are new examples of dusty…
The presence of dusty debris around main sequence stars denotes the existence of planetary systems. Such debris disks are often identified by the presence of excess continuum emission at infrared and (sub-)millimetre wavelengths, with…
Observations of debris disks, the products of the collisional evolution of rocky planetesimals, can be used to trace planetary activity across a wide range of stellar types. The most common end points of stellar evolution are no exception…
Since the 1990's, protoplanetary disks and planetary disks have been intensively observed from the optical to the millimetre wavelength and many models have been developed to investigate their gas and dust properties and dynamics. These…
Flattened, rotating disks of cool dust and gas extending for tens to hundreds of AU are found around almost all low mass stars shortly after their birth. These disks generally persist for several Myr, during which time some material…
Over the past 10 years abundant evidence has emerged that many (if not all) stars are born with circumstellar disks. Understanding the evolution of post-accretion disks can provide strong constraints on theories of planet formation and…
If planetesimal formation is an efficient process, as suggested by several models involving gravitational collapse of pebble clouds, then, before long, a significant part of the primordial dust mass should be absorbed in many km sized…
A clear understanding of the chemical processing of matter, as it is transferred from a molecular cloud to a planetary system, depends heavily on knowledge of the physical conditions endured by gas and dust as these accrete onto a disk and…
The connection between the nature of a protoplanetary disk and that of a debris disk is not well understood. Dust evolution, planet formation, and disk dissipation likely play a role in the processes involved. We aim to reconcile both…
The protoplanetary disks of Herbig Ae stars eventually dissipate leaving a tenuous debris disk comprised of planetesimals and dust, as well as possibly gas and planets. This paper uses the properties of 10-20Myr A star debris disks to…
Understanding planetesimal formation is an essential first step to understanding planet formation. The distribution of these first solid bodies will drive the locations where planetary embryos can grow. We seek to understand the parameter…
Accumulation of dust and ice particles into planetesimals is an important step in the planet formation process. Planetesimals are the seeds of both terrestrial planets and the solid cores of gas and ice giants forming by core accretion.…
Stars and planets are the fundamental objects of the Universe. Their formation processes, though related, may differ in important ways. Stars almost certainly form from gravitational collapse and probably have formed this way since the…
Thousands of confirmed and candidate exoplanets have been identified in recent years. Consequently, theoretical research on the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems has seen a boost, and the processes of planet-planet…
Many stars are in binaries or higher-order multiple stellar systems. Although in recent years a large number of binaries have been proven to host exoplanets, how planet formation proceeds in multiple stellar systems has not been studied…
Planetesimal formation is still mysterious. One of the ways to form planetesimals is to invoke a gas pressure bump in a protoplanetary disc. In our previous paper, we propose a new scenario in which the piled-up dust at a gas pressure bump…
Debris discs are a consequence of the planet formation process and constitute the fingerprints of planetesimal systems. Their solar system's counterparts are the asteroid and Edgeworth-Kuiper belts. The DUNES survey aims at detecting…
Observations of debris disks allow for the study of planetary systems, even where planets have not been detected. However, debris disks are often only characterized by unresolved infrared excesses that resemble featureless blackbodies, and…