Related papers: Interpretation and diversity of exoplanetary mater…
We present HST ultraviolet spectroscopy of the white dwarfs PG0843+516, PG1015+161, SDSS1228+1040, and GALEX1931+0117, which accrete circumstellar planetary debris formed from the destruction of asteroids. Combined with optical data, a…
Observations of planetary material polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs are an important probe of the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. Medium- and high-resolution optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy of seven white dwarfs…
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…
There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that planetary systems can survive beyond the main sequence. Most commonly, white dwarfs are found to be accreting material from tidally disrupted asteroids, whose bulk compositions are reflected by…
This second paper presents an in-depth analysis of the composition of the planetary material that has been accreted onto seven white dwarfs with circumstellar dust and gas emission discs with abundances reported in Paper I. The white dwarfs…
The photospheres of some white dwarfs are "polluted" by accretion of material from their surrounding planetary debris. White dwarfs with dust disks are often heavily polluted and high-resolution spectroscopic observations of these systems…
Over a quarter of white dwarfs have photospheric metal pollution, which is evidence for recent accretion of exoplanetary material. While a wide range of mechanisms have been proposed to account for this pollution, there are currently few…
White dwarf atmospheres are frequently polluted by material from their own planetary systems. Absorption features from Ca, Mg, Fe and other elements can provide unique insights into the provenance of this exoplanetary material, with their…
Polluted white dwarfs serve as astrophysical mass spectrometers - their photospheric abundances are used to infer the composition of planetary objects that accrete onto them. We show that due to asymmetries in the accretion process, the…
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…
White dwarfs that accrete the debris of tidally disrupted asteroids provide the opportunity to measure the bulk composition of the building blocks, or fragments, of exoplanets. This technique has established a diversity in compositions…
White dwarfs that have accreted planetary bodies are a powerful probe of the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. In this paper, we present a Bayesian model to explain the abundances observed in the atmospheres of 202 DZ white dwarfs…
The accretion of rocky material is responsible for the presence of heavy elements in the atmospheres of a large fraction of white dwarf stars. Those objects represent a unique opportunity to infer the bulk composition of exoplanetesimals.…
We live in an exoplanet revolution, with more than 5,000 exoplanets detected to date. Our ability to characterise individual exoplanets is constantly improving, with exquisite mass and radius measurements for an ever-growing sample of…
Existing determinations show that n(C)/n(Fe) is more than a factor of 10 below solar in the atmospheres of three white dwarfs that appear to be externally-polluted. These results are not easily explained if the stars have accreted…
The accretion of planetesimals onto white dwarf atmospheres allows determination of the composition of this polluting material. This composition is usually inferred from observed pollution levels by assuming it originated from a single…
White dwarf planetary systems provide a unique way to measure the bulk composition of exoplanetary material. Extrasolar asteroids/comets/moons which have survived the evolution of their host star can end up in the atmosphere of the white…
Volatiles, notably water, are key to the habitability of rocky planets. The presence of water in planetary material can be inferred from the atmospheric oxygen abundances of polluted white dwarfs, but this interpretation is often complex.…
We present the Planetary Enriched White Dwarf Database (PEWDD), a collection of published photospheric abundances of white dwarfs accreting planetary debris alongside additional information relevant to metal-enrichment and the presence of…
Planetary systems that orbit white dwarf stars can be studied via spectroscopic observations of the stars themselves. Numerous white dwarfs are seen to have accreted mostly rocky minor planets, the remnants of which are present in the…