Related papers: Extra-Solar Kuiper Belt Dust Disks
Observations of debris disks offer a window into the physical and dynamical properties of planetesimals in extrasolar systems through the size distribution of dust grains. In particular, the millimeter spectral index of thermal dust…
Extreme debris discs (EDDs) are bright and warm circumstellar dusty structures around main sequence stars. They may represent the outcome of giant collisions occuring in the terrestrial region between large planetesimals or planetary…
Debris disks are extrasolar analogs to our own Kuiper Belt and they are detected around at least 17% of nearby Sun-like stars. The morphology and dynamics of a disk encode information about its history, as well as that of any exoplanets…
This paper considers the distribution of dust which originates in the break-up of planetesimals that are trapped in resonance with a planet. There are three grain populations with different spatial distributions: (I) large grains have the…
[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…
Using ISO-ISOPHOT we carried out a survey of almost 150 stars to search for evidence of emission from dust orbiting young main sequence stars, both in clusters and isolated systems. Over half of the detections are new examples of dusty…
Irregular satellites are the minor bodies found orbiting all four Solar System giant planets, with large semi-major axes, eccentricities, and inclinations. Previous studies have determined that the Solar System's irregular satellites are…
Debris disks offer valuable insights into the latest stages of circumstellar disk evolution, and can possibly help us to trace the outcomes of planetary formation processes. In the age range 10 to 100\,Myr, most of the gas is expected to…
We present models for the formation of terrestrial planets, and the collisional evolution of debris disks, in planetary systems that contain multiple unstable gas giants. We previously showed that the dynamics of the giant planets…
Numerous nearby FGK dwarfs possess discs of debris generated by collisions among comets. Here we fit the levels of dusty excess observed by Spitzer at 70$\umu$m and show that they form a rather smooth distribution. Taking into account the…
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…
Planetesimals form in gas-rich protoplanetary disks around young stars. However, protoplanetary disks fade in about 10 Myr. The planetesimals (and also many of the planets) left behind are too dim to study directly. Fortunately, collisions…
In order to detect and characterise cold extended circumstellar dust originating from collisions of planetesimal bodies in disks, belts, or rings at Kuiper-Belt distances (30-50 AU or beyond) sensitive submillimetre observations are…
We analyze two new sets of coagulation calculations for solid particles orbiting within the terrestrial zone of a solar-type star. In models of collisional cascades, numerical simulations demonstrate that the total mass, the mass in 1 mm…
There is currently debate over whether the dust content of planetary systems is stochastically regenerated or originates in planetesimal belts evolving in steady state. In this paper a simple model for the steady state evolution of debris…
Debris disks are signposts of analogues to small body populations of the Solar System, often however with much higher masses and dust production rates. The disk associated with the nearby star Eta Corvi is especially striking as it shows…
(Abridged) A numerical model of a circumstellar debris disk is developed and applied to observations of the circumstellar dust orbiting beta Pictoris. The model accounts for the rates at which dust is produced by collisions among unseen…
(Abridged) The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt with its presumed dusty debris is a natural reference for extrsolar debris disks. We employ a new algorithm to eliminate the inclination and the distance selection effects in the known TNO populations to…
The nature of the few known solar-mass stars simultaneously containing debris disks and planets remains an open question. A number of works have shown that this property appears to be independent of planetary masses as well as of stellar…
Debris disks -- collisionally sustained belts of dust and sometimes gas around main sequence stars -- are remnants of planet formation processes and are found in systems ${\gtrsim}10$ Myr old. Millimeter-wavelength observations are…