Related papers: Extra-Solar Kuiper Belt Dust Disks

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…

We discuss the properties of several circumstellar debris disk systems imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer in a survey of young stars with known far-IR excesses. These dusty disks…

Spatially resolved scattered-light images of circumstellar (CS) debris in exoplanetary systems constrain the physical properties and orbits of the dust particles in these systems. They also inform on co-orbiting (but unseen) planets,…

The connection between the nature of a protoplanetary disk and that of a debris disk is not well understood. Dust evolution, planet formation, and disk dissipation likely play a role in the processes involved. We aim to reconcile both…

Astronomical observations reveal that protoplanetary disks around young stars commonly have ring- and gap-like structures in their dust distributions. These features are associated with pressure bumps trapping dust particles at specific…

Many debris discs reveal a two-component structure, with a cold outer and a warm inner component. While the former are likely massive analogues of the Kuiper belt, the origin of the latter is still a matter of debate. In this work we…

We report the discovery of four rare debris disks with warm excesses around F-stars, significantly increasing the number of such systems known in the solar neighborhood. Three of the disks are consistent with the predictions of steady state…

Many nearby main-sequence stars have been searched for debris using the far-infrared Herschel satellite, within the DEBRIS, DUNES and Guaranteed-Time Key Projects. We discuss here 11 stars of spectral types A to M where the stellar…

Planetesimal formation likely lasted for millions of years in the solar nebula, and the cold classicals in the Kuiper Belt are suggested to be the direct products of streaming instability. The presence of minor planetary bodies in the outer…

Circumstellar dust disks have been observed around many nearby stars. However, many stars are part of binary or multiple stellar systems. A natural question arises regarding the presence and properties of such disks in systems with more…

Debris discs reveal the architectures and dynamical histories of planetary systems. Sub-millimetre observations trace large dust grains within debris discs, revealing their bulk properties. Debris discs have so far only been detected around…

The interstellar thick disks of galaxies contain not only gas, but significant quantities of dust. Most of our knowledge of extraplanar dust in disk galaxies comes from direct broadband optical imaging of these systems, wherein the dust is…

A clear understanding of the chemical processing of matter, as it is transferred from a molecular cloud to a planetary system, depends heavily on knowledge of the physical conditions endured by gas and dust as these accrete onto a disk and…

(Abridged) Using an efficient computational approach, we have reconstructed the structure of the dust cloud in the Solar system between 0.5 and 100 AU produced by the Kuiper belt objects. Our simulations offer a 3-D physical model of the…

The mass of solids in a young circumstellar disc may be the key factor in its efficiency in building planetesimals and planetary cores, and dust observed around young T Tauri and Herbig Ae stars can be used as a proxy for this initial solid…

We observed 69 A3-F8 main sequence binary star systems using the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. We find emission significantly in excess of predicted photospheric flux levels for 9(+4/-3)% and…

The cross section of material in debris discs is thought to be dominated by the smallest grains that can still stay in bound orbits despite the repelling action of stellar radiation pressure. Thus the minimum (and typical) grain size…

The similar orbital distances and detection rates of debris disks and the prominent rings observed in protoplanetary disks suggest a potential connection between these structures. We explore this connection with new calculations that follow…

Dust particles observed in extrasolar planetary discs originate from undetectable km-sized bodies but this valuable information remains uninteresting if the theoretical link between grains and planetesimals is not properly known. We outline…

Cool debris discs are a relic of the planetesimal formation process around their host star, analogous to the solar system's Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. As such, they can be used as a proxy to probe the origin and formation of planetary systems…