Related papers: Carrying a Torch for Dust in Binary Star Systems
The majority of stars are part of gravitationally bound stellar systems, such as binaries. Observations of protobinary systems constrain the conditions that lead to stellar multiplicity and subsequent orbital evolution. We report…
Nearly all young stars are initially surrounded by `protoplanetary' discs of gas and dust, and in the case of single stars at least 30\% of these discs go on to form planets. The process of protoplanetary disc formation can result in…
Debris discs are typically revealed through excess emission at infrared wavelengths. Most discs exhibit excess at mid- and far-infrared wavelengths, analogous to the solar system's Asteroid and Edgeworth-Kuiper belts. Recently, stars with…
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…
Theoretical formation models and exoplanet detection surveys indicate that systems with multiple giant planets are common. We investigate how multiple super-thermal mass planets embedded in a circumstellar disk shape the dust distribution…
Transition disks are considered sites of ongoing planet formation, and their dust and gas distributions could be signposts of embedded planets. The transition disk around the T Tauri star RY Lup has an inner dust cavity and displays a…
The presence of crystalline silicates has been detected in the circumstellar environment of several young stars in the recent past and there is evidence of silicon carbide (SiC) detection in the envelope of pre-main sequence star SVS13. In…
A sample of 14 pre-main sequence visual binary systems in southern star-forming regions were imaged at 2 um with the Keck I telescope to search for tertiary companions, scattered-light disks, and compact nebulae at linear scales of 5-100…
There have been several recent detections of candidate Keplerian discs around massive young protostars. Given the relatively large disc-to-star mass ratios in these systems, and their young ages, it is worth investigating their propensity…
The young star AB Aurigae is surrounded by a complex combination of gas-rich and dust dominated structures. The inner disk which has not been studied previously at sufficient resolution and imaging dynamic range seems to contain very little…
The environment of a binary star system may contain two circumstellar disks, one orbiting each of the stars, and a circumbinary disk orbiting about the entire binary. The disk structure and evolution are modified by the presence of the…
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…
We study a warping instability of a geometrically thin, non-self-gravitating, circumbinary disk around young binary stars on an eccentric orbit. Such a disk is subject to both the tidal torques due to a time-dependent binary potential and…
With a Jupiter-like exoplanet and a debris disk with both asteroid and Kuiper belt analogs, $\epsilon$ Eridani has a fascinating resemblance to our expectations for a young Solar System. We present a deep HST/STIS coronographic dataset…
We present K-band polarimetric images of several massive young stellar objects at resolutions $\sim$ 0.1-0.5 arcsec. The polarization vectors around these sources are nearly centro-symmetric, indicating they are dominating the illumination…
We analyze the highest-resolution millimeter continuum and near-infrared (NIR) scattered-light images presented to date of the circumbinary disk orbiting V4046 Sgr, a ~20 Myr old actively accreting, close binary T Tauri star system located…
The $Herschel$ Space telescope carried out an unprecedented survey of nearby stars for debris disks. The dust present in these debris disks scatters and polarizes stellar light in the visible part of the spectrum. We explore what can be…
We present the first high angular resolution 1.4mm and 2.7mm continuum maps of the T Tauri binary system HK Tau obtained with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. The contributions of both components are well disentangled at 1.4mm and the…
In this paper we study the evolution of viscous and radiative circumstellar disks under the influence of a companion star. We focus on the eccentric {\gamma} Cephei and {\alpha} Centauri system as examples and compare the disk quantities…
This paper is one in a series presenting results obtained within the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS) Legacy Science Program on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Here we present a study of dust processing and growth in seven…