Related papers: Explorations of Dusty Debris Disk Geometry
Understanding the formation mechanisms of protoplanetary disks and multiple systems, and their pristine properties, is a key question for modern astrophysics. The properties of the youngest disks, embedded in rotating infalling protostellar…
The inversion of the white dwarf luminosity function provides an independent way to prove the past star formation history of the Milky Way independent of any cosmological models. In Rowell & Hambly (2011), the effective volume method uses…
We investigate how 'extra' central light in the surface brightness profiles of cusp ellipticals relates to the profiles of ellipticals with cores. Cusp elliptical envelopes are formed by violent relaxation in mergers acting on stars in…
We present the first 3D observations of a diffuse elliptical galaxy (dE). The good quality data (S/N up to 40) reveal the kinematical signature of an embedded stellar disc, reminiscent of what is commonly observed in elliptical galaxies,…
White dwarfs that have accreted rocky planetary bodies provide unique insights regarding the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. The analysis presented here uses observed white dwarf atmospheric abundances to constrain both where in…
This paper is the first in a series in which we present the results of an ESO Large Program on the kinematics and internal dynamics of dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs). We investigate the relations between the parameters that quantify the…
(Abridged) A numerical model of a circumstellar debris disk is developed and applied to observations of the circumstellar dust orbiting beta Pictoris. The model accounts for the rates at which dust is produced by collisions among unseen…
The lifetime of a planetary disc which orbits a white dwarf represents a crucial input parameter into evolutionary models of that system. Here we apply a purely analytical formalism to estimate lifetimes of the debris phase of these discs,…
The inwards scattering of planetesimals towards white dwarfs is expected to be a stochastic process with variability on human time-scales. The planetesimals tidally disrupt at the Roche radius, producing dusty debris detectable as excess…
Early-type dwarf galaxies are the most common type of galaxies observed in the Universe. The origin of this kind of systems is still not well understood. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the different locations of dwarf…
Cool debris discs are a relic of the planetesimal formation process around their host star, analogous to the solar system's Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. As such, they can be used as a proxy to probe the origin and formation of planetary systems…
To explore the properties of extreme outer stellar disks, we obtained ultra-deep V and GALEX UV images of 4 dwarf irregular galaxies and one Blue Compact Dwarf galaxy and ultra-deep B images of 3 of these. Our V-band surface photometry…
Debris disks give us the unique opportunity to probe the properties of small $\mu$m-sized particles, allowing us to peer into the constituents of their parent bodies, young analogs of comets and asteroids of our solar system. In the past,…
(abridged) Debris disks around main sequence stars are produced by the erosion and evaporation of unseen parent bodies. AU Microscopii (GJ 803) is a compelling object to study in the context of disk evolution across different spectral…
We explore whether assumptions about dust grain shape affect resulting estimates of the composition and grain size distribution of the AU Microscopii (AU Mic) debris disk from scattered light data collected by Lomax et al. (2018). The near…
The presence of planetary material in white dwarf atmospheres, thought to be accreted from a dusty debris disc produced via the tidal disruption of a planetesimal, is common. Approximately five per cent of these discs host a co-orbital…
We conducted an analysis of the velocity field of dwarf galaxies in the LITTLE THINGS sample, focusing on deriving 2D velocity maps that encompass both the transverse and radial velocity fields. Within the range of radial distances where…
We present a study of the circumstellar environment of IRAS 04158+2805 based on multi-wavelength observations and models. Images in the optical and near-infrared, a polarisation map in the optical, and mid-infrared spectra were obtained…
The distribution of dark matter in dwarf galaxies can have important implications on our understanding of galaxy formation as well as the particle physics properties of dark matter. However, accurately characterizing the dark matter content…
Mergers in the local universe present a unique opportunity for studying the transformations of galaxies in detail. Presented here are recent results, based on multi-wavelength, high-resolution imaging and medium resolution spectroscopy,…