Related papers: RZ Piscium Hosts a Compact and Highly Perturbed De…

The erratically variable star RZ Piscium (RZ Psc) displays extreme optical dropout events and strikingly large excess infrared emission. To ascertain the evolutionary status of this intriguing star, we obtained observations of RZ Psc with…

RZ Psc is a young Sun-like star with a bright and warm infrared excess that is occasionally dimmed significantly by circumstellar dust structures. Optical depth arguments suggest that the dimming events do not probe a typical sight line…

RZ Psc is a young Sun-like star, long associated with the UXor class of variable stars, which is partially or wholly dimmed by dust clumps several times each year. The system has a bright and variable infrared excess, which has been…

The vertical distribution of dust in debris disks is sensitive to the number and size of large planetesimals dynamically stirring the disk, and is therefore well-suited for constraining the prevalence of otherwise unobservable Uranus and…

Spitzer IRS spectroscopy supports the interpretation that BP Piscium, a gas and dust enshrouded star residing at high Galactic latitude, is a first-ascent giant rather than a classical T Tauri star. Our analysis suggests that BP Piscium's…

BP Psc is a puzzling late-type, emission-line field star with large infrared excess. The star is encircled and enshrouded by a nearly edge-on, dust circumstellar disk, and displays an extensive jet system similar to those associated with…

V488 Persei is the most extreme debris disk known in terms of the fraction of the stellar luminosity it intercepts and reradiates. The infrared output of its disk is extremely variable, similar in this respect to the most variable disk…

Since giant planets scatter planetesimals within a few tidal radii of their orbits, the locations of existing planetesimal belts indicate regions where giant planet formation failed in bygone protostellar disks. Infrared observations of…

A significant fraction of main-sequence stars are encircled by dusty debris discs, where the short-lived dust particles are replenished through collisions between planetesimals. Most destructive collisions occur when the orbits of smaller…

This paper describes Herschel observations of the nearby (8.5pc) G5V multi-exoplanet host star 61 Vir at 70-500micron carried out by the DEBRIS survey. These reveal emission that is extended out to >15arcsec with a morphology that can be…

The vertical thickness of debris discs is often used as a measure of these systems' dynamical excitation and as clues to the presence of hidden massive perturbers such as planetary embryos. However, this argument could be flawed because the…

Extreme debris discs are characterized by unusually strong mid-infrared excess emission, which often proves to be variable. The warm dust in these discs is of transient nature and is likely related to a recent giant collision occurring…

Planetesimals -- asteroids and comets -- are the building blocks of planets in protoplanetary discs and the source of dust, ice and gas in debris discs. Along with planets they comprise the left-over material after star formation that…

We report the discovery of mid-infrared excess emission in the young object RZ Psc. The excess constitutes ~8% of its Lbol, and is well fit by a single 500K black-body implying a dust free region within 0.7AU for optically thick dust. The…

Observations of debris disks allow for the study of planetary systems, even where planets have not been detected. However, debris disks are often only characterized by unresolved infrared excesses that resemble featureless blackbodies, and…

The 13 Myr old star HD106906 is orbited by a debris disk of at least 0.067 M_Moon with an inner and outer radius of 20 AU and 120 AU, respectively, and by a planet at a distance of 650 AU. We use this curious combination of a close low-mass…

Debris disks are evidence that stars harbor reservoirs of dust-producing plantesimals on spatial scales similar the solar system. Debris disks present a wide range of sizes and structural features and there is growing evidence that, in some…

Multi-epoch infrared photometry from Spitzer is used to monitor circumstellar discs at white dwarfs, which are consistent with disrupted minor planets whose debris is accreted and chemically reflected by their host stars. Widespread…

We describe Spitzer IRAC and MIPS observations of the nearby 25 Myr-old open cluster NGC 2232. Combining these data with ROSAT All-Sky Survey observations, proper motions, and optical photometry/spectroscopy, we construct a list of highly…

We investigate whether the tentative correlation between planets and debris discs which has been previously identified can be confirmed at high significance. We compile a sample of 201 stars with known planets and existing far infrared…