Related papers: Extrasolar Kuiper Belts
We present results from two Herschel observing programs using the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer. During three separate campaigns, we obtained Herschel data for 24 stars at 70, 100, and 160 microns. We chose stars that were…
Intermediate-mass stars (1-3 Msun) host some of the brightest and best-studied debris discs. This stellar class is also the most frequent host of molecular gas in systems older than typical protoplanetary disc lifetimes, and the most likely…
The small bodies in the Kuiper Belt region of the distant Solar System are leftovers from planet formation. Their orbital distribution today tells us about how giant planets migrated, while their surface properties, shapes, and sizes tell…
The dust disk around Beta Pic must be produced by collision or by evaporation of orbiting Kuiper belt-like objects. Here we present the Orbiting-Evaporating-Bodies scenario in which the disk is a gigantic multi-cometary tail supplied by…
We have identified four circumstellar disks with a deficit of dust emission from their inner 15-50 AU. All four stars have F-G spectral type, and were uncovered as part of the Spitzer Space Telescope ``Cores to Disks'' Legacy Program…
Several hundred stars older than 10 million years have been observed to have infrared excesses. These observations are explained by dust grains formed by the collisional fragmentation of hidden planetesimals. Such dusty planetesimal discs…
Analyzing Spitzer and Herschel archival measurements we identified a debris disk around the young K7/M0 star CP-72 2713. The system belongs to the 24Myr old $\beta$ Pic moving group. Our new 1.33mm continuum observation, obtained with the…
Motivated by the reported dearth of debris discs around M stars, we use survival models to study the occurrence of planetesimal discs around them. These survival models describe a planetesimal disc with a small number of parameters,…
Although dust is widely found in astrophysics, forming dust is surprisingly difficult. The proper combination of low temperature (<2000 K) and high density is mainly found in the winds of late-type giant and supergiant stars which, as a…
Many members of nearby young moving groups exhibit infrared excess attributed to circumstellar debris dust, formed via erosion of planetesimals. With their proximity and well-dated ages, these groups are excellent laboratories for studying…
We report several results related to the dynamical evolution of dust produced in the Kuiper Belt (KB). We show that its particle size frequency distribution in space is greatly changed from the distribution at production, as a results of…
[Abridged] We present two deep surveys of circumstellar discs around solar-type stars at different ages carried out at 350 micron with the CSO and at 1.2 mm with the IRAM 30-m telescope. The aim of this study is to understand the evolution…
We have begun an observational program to search nearby stars for dust disks that are analogous to the disk of zodiacal dust that fills the interior of our solar system. We imaged six nearby main-sequence stars with the Keck telescope at…
Exozodiacal dust disks (exozodis) are populations of warm (~300K) or hot (~1000K) dust, located in or interior to a star's habitable zone, detected around ~25% of main-sequence stars as excess emission over the stellar photosphere at mid-…
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…
Debris disks are exoplanetary systems that contain planets, minor bodies (i.e., asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, comets, etc.), and micron-sized debris dust. Since water ice is the most common frozen volatile, it plays an essential role in…
HD 38206 is an A0V star in the Columba association, hosting a debris disc first discovered by IRAS. Further observations by Spitzer and Herschel showed that the disc has two components, likely analogous to the asteroid and Kuiper belts of…
We present an analysis of the debris disc around the nearby K2 V star HIP 17439. In the context of the Herschel DUNES key programme the disc was observed and spatially resolved in the far-IR with the Herschel PACS and SPIRE instruments. In…
The mass density of dust particles that form from asteroids and comets in the interplanetary medium of the solar system is, near 1 AU, comparable to the mass density of the solar wind. It is mainly contained in particles of micrometer size…
We report the results of a spectroscopic search for debris disks surrounding 41 nearby solar type stars, including 8 planet-bearing stars, using the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope}. With accurate relative photometry using the Infrared…