Related papers: Eccentric Dust Ring in the IRS 48 Transition Disk

Using Non-Redundant Mask interferometry (NRM), we searched for binary companions to objects previously classified as Transitional Disks (TD). These objects are thought to be an evolutionary stage between an optically thick disk and…

Transition disks correspond to a short stage between the young protoplanetary phase and older debris phase. Along this evolutionary sequence, the gas component disappears leaving room for a dust-dominated environment where already-formed…

Massive eccentric disks (gaseous or particulate) orbiting a dominant central mass appear in many astrophysical systems, including planetary rings, protoplanetary and accretion disks in binaries, and nuclear stellar disks around supermassive…

The eccentric orbits of the known extrasolar giant planets provide evidence that most planet-forming environments undergo violent dynamical instabilities. Here, we numerically simulate the impact of giant planet instabilities on planetary…

To date, hundreds of sub-stellar objects with masses between $1-80\ M_{\rm Jup}$ have been detected orbiting main-sequence stars. The current convention uses the deuterium-burning limit, $M_c \approx 13 M_{\rm Jup}$ to divide this…

Young protostellar binary systems, with expected ages less than $\sim$10$^5$ years, are little modified since birth, providing key clues to binary formation and evolution. We present a first look at the young, Class 0 binary protostellar…

We have obtained new NASA IRTF SpeX spectra of the HR 4796A debris ring system. We find a unique red excess flux that extends out to ~9 um in Spitzer IRS spectra, where thermal emission from cold, ~100K dust from the system's ring at ~75 AU…

In circumstellar disks, the size of dust particles varies from submicron to several centimeters, while planetesimals have sizes of hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, various regimes for the aerodynamic drag between solid bodies and gas can…

Interstellar dust plays a central role in the evolution of galaxies by shaping star formation, altering observed stellar properties, and redistributing radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. In the Milky Way, dust is concentrated in…

In this work, we used N-body simulations and a radiative transfer package to model the evolution of eccentric debris discs produced by giant impacts between planetary embryos. This included how the morphology and infrared emission of these…

Using the MIPS instrument on the Spitzer telescope, we have searched for infrared excesses around a sample of 82 stars, mostly F, G, and K main-sequence field stars, along with a small number of nearby M stars. These stars were selected for…

Planets have been detected in circumbinary orbits in several different systems, despite the additional challenges faced during their formation in such an environment. We investigate the possibility of planetary formation in the…

I propose that the relatively high eccentricity found in some tidally strongly interacting binary systems, where the mass-losing star is an evolved giant star, e.g., an asymptotic giant branch star, is caused by an enhanced mass loss rate…

We report on the detection of a transit of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e with warm Spitzer in IRAC's 4.5-micron band. Our MCMC analysis includes an extensive modeling of the systematic effects affecting warm Spitzer photometry, and yields a…

The extrasolar planets discovered to date possess unexpected orbital elements. Most orbit their host stars with larger eccentricities and smaller semi-major axes than similarly sized planets in our own solar system do. It is generally…

Transitional discs are a special type of protoplanetary discs where planet formation is thought to be taking place. These objects feature characteristic inner cavities and/or gaps of a few tens of AUs in the sub-millimitre images of the…

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 2 observations of the 1.3 mm dust continuum emission of the protoplanetary disc surrounding the T Tauri star Elias 24 with an angular resolution of $\sim 0.2"$ ($\sim 28$…

Young circumstellar disks are of prime interest to understand the physical and chemical conditions under which planet formation takes place. Only very few detections of planet candidates within these disks exist, and most of them are…

Context: Debris disks are important observational clues for understanding planetary-system formation process. In particular, faint warm debris disks may be related to late planet formation near 1 AU. A systematic search of faint warm debris…

Newly formed planets (or brown dwarfs) may possess disks or rings that occupy an appreciable fraction of the planet's Hill sphere and extend beyond the Laplace radius, where the tidal torque from the host star dominates over the torque from…