Related papers: Fomalhaut's debris disc is not dominated by primor…
Following the optical imaging of the exoplanet candidate Fomalhaut b (Fom b), we present a numerical model of how Fomalhaut's debris disk is gravitationally shaped by an interior planet. The model is simple, adaptable to other debris disks,…
Debris belts on the periphery of planetary systems, encompassing the region occupied by planetary orbits, are massive analogues of the Solar system's Kuiper belt. They are detected by thermal emission of dust released in collisions amongst…
The star Fomalhaut hosts a narrow, eccentric debris disc, plus a highly eccentric companion Fomalhaut b. It is often argued that Fomalhaut b cannot have significant mass, otherwise it would quickly perturb the disc. We show that material in…
The Sun and >15 percent of nearby stars are surrounded by dusty debris disks that must be collisionally replenished by asteroids and comets, as the dust would otherwise be depleted on <10 Myr timescales (ref. 1). Theoretical studies show…
This paper presents a model for the outcome of collisions between planetesimals in a debris disk and assesses the impact of collisional processes on the structure and size distribution of the disk. The model is presented by its application…
We consider constraints on the planetesimal population residing in the disks of AU Microscopii, Beta Pictoris and Fomalhaut taking into account their observed thicknesses and normal disk opacities. We estimate that bodies of radius 5, 180…
The dynamical evolution of planetary systems leaves observable signatures in debris disks. Optical images trace micron-sized grains, which are strongly affected by stellar radiation and need not coincide with their parent body population.…
We describe comprehensive calculations of the formation of icy planets and debris disks at 30-150 AU around 1-3 solar mass stars. Disks composed of large, strong planetesimals produce more massive planets than disks composed of small, weak…
Fomalhaut is one of the most interesting and well studied nearby stars, hosting at least one planet, a spectacular debris ring, and two distant low-mass stellar companions (TW PsA and LP 876-10, a.k.a. Fomalhaut B & C). We observed both…
It is now reasonably clear that disc fragmentation can only operate in the outer parts of protostellar discs ($r > 50$ au). It is also expected that any object that forms via disc fragmentation will have an initial mass greater than that of…
The commonality of collisionally replenished debris around main sequence stars suggests that minor bodies are frequent around Sun-like stars. Whether or not debris disks in general are accompanied by planets is yet unknown, but debris disks…
We consider the ability of three models - impacts, captures, and collisional cascades - to account for a bright cloud of dust in Fomalhaut b. Our analysis is based on a novel approach to the power-law size distribution of solid particles…
Recent JWST observations of the Fomalhaut debris disk have revealed a significant abundance of dust interior to the outer planetesimal belt, raising questions about its origin and maintenance. In this study, we apply an analytical model to…
A candidate < 3 Jupiter mass, extrasolar planet was recently imaged by Kalas et al. (2008) using HST/ACS at 12.7" (96 AU) separation from the nearby (d = 7.7 pc) young (~200 Myr) A2V star Fomalhaut. Here we report results from M-band (4.8…
Observations of dusty debris disks can be used to test theories of planetesimal coagulation. Planetesimals of sizes up to a couple thousand kms are embedded in these disks and their mutual collisions generate the small dust grains that are…
We report observations with the JWST/NIRCam coronagraph of the Fomalhaut system. This nearby A star hosts a complex debris disk system discovered by the IRAS satellite. Observations in F444W and F356W filters using the round 430R mask…
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…
The number of stars that are known to have debris disks is greater than that of stars known to harbour planets. These disks are detected because dust is created in the destruction of planetesimals in the disks much in the same way that dust…
Debris disks are the dust disks found around ~20% of nearby main sequence stars in far-IR surveys. They can be considered as descendants of protoplanetary disks or components of planetary systems, providing valuable information on…
Dust in debris discs is constantly replenished by collisions between larger objects. In this paper, we investigate a method to detect these collisions. We generate models based on recent results on the Fomalhaut debris disc, where we…