Related papers: Explorations of Dusty Debris Disk Geometry
We present results from two mid-infrared imaging programs of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and fine-structure elliptical galaxies. The former are known to nearly all be recent mergers between two gas-rich spiral galaxies, while…
A model is proposed for the formation of gas-rich dwarf irregular galaxies and gas-poor, rotating dwarf elliptical galaxies following the interaction between two giant galaxies as a function of space density. The formation of dwarf galaxies…
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) has excelled in imaging debris disks in the near-infrared. The GPI Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) imaged twenty-four debris disks in polarized $H$-band light, while other programs observed half of these disks in…
We report nine years of optical spectroscopy of the metal-polluted white dwarf SDSS J104341.53+085558.2, which presents morphological variations of the line profiles of the 8600 \AA\ Ca II triplet emission from the gaseous component of its…
Gas-rich dwarf and disk galaxies overlap in numerous physical quantities that make their classification subjective. We report the discovery of a separation between dwarfs and disks into two unique sequences in the mass (luminosity) versus…
Disks around brown dwarfs (BDs) are excellent laboratories to study the first steps of planet formation in cold and low-mass disk conditions. The radial-drift velocities of dust particles in BD disks are higher than in disks around more…
Recent imaging of protoplanetary disks with high resolution and contrast have revealed a striking variety of substructure. Of particular interest are cases where near-infrared scattered light images show evidence for low-intensity annular…
The location of surface brightness maxima (e.g. apocentre and pericentre glow) in eccentric debris discs are often used to infer the underlying orbits of the dust and planetesimals that comprise the disc. However, there is a misconception…
We present ALMA continuum and spectral line data at 0.89 mm and 3.2 mm for three disks surrounding young brown dwarfs and very low mass stars in the Taurus star forming region. Dust thermal emission is detected and spatially resolved for…
We describe Spitzer images of a sample of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies, using the high sensitivity and spatial resolution to explore the morphologies of dust in these galaxies. For the starbursting dwarf UGC 10445, we present a…
By modelling the axis ratio distribution of SDSS DR8 galaxies we find the intrinsic 3D shapes of spirals and ellipticals. We use morphological information from the Galaxy Zoo project and assume a non-parametric distribution intrinsic of…
We report initial results from a {\it Herschel} program to search for far-infrared emission from cold dust around a statistically significant sample of young brown dwarfs. The first three objects in our survey are all detected at 70\micron,…
Crystalline silicates are an important tracer to the dust evolution in protoplanetary disks. In the inner disk, amorphous silicates are annealed by the high temperatures. These crystalline silicates are radially and vertically distributed…
Debris discs are dusty belts of planetesimals around main-sequence stars, similar to the asteroid and Kuiper belts in our solar system. The planetesimals cannot be observed directly, yet they produce detectable dust in mutual collisions.…
Debris disks or belts are important signposts for the presence of colliding planetesimals and, therefore, for ongoing planet formation and evolution processes in young planetary systems. Imaging of debris material at small separations from…
The number of stars that are known to have debris disks is greater than that of stars known to harbour planets. These disks are detected because dust is created in the destruction of planetesimals in the disks much in the same way that dust…
We present the discovery with WISE of a significant infrared excess associated with the eclipsing post-common envelope binary SDSSJ 030308.35+005443.7, the first excess discovered around a non-interacting white dwarf+main sequence M dwarf…
We calculate the flux received from a binary system obscured by a circumbinary disc. The disc is modelled using two dimensional hydrodynamical simulations, and the vertical structure is derived by assuming it is isothermal. The…
Using well-defined selection criteria applied to the LEDA galaxy catalogue we have constructed a sample of elliptical galaxies that can be taken to lie in the field. Such criteria can easily be applied to theoretical simulations for direct…
We analyse the phase-space structure of simulated thick discs that are the result of a significant merger between a disc galaxy and a satellite. Our main goal is to establish what would be the characteristic imprints of a merger origin for…