129 research outputs found
Molecular Hydrogen emission from disks in the eta Chamaeleontis cluster
Disks in the 6 Myr old cluster eta Chamaeleontis were searched for emission
from hot H2. Around the M3 star ECHAJ0843.3-7905 we detect circumstellar gas
orbiting at ~2 AU. If the gas is UV-excited, the ro-vibrational line traces a
hot gas layer supported by a disk of mass ~0.03Msolar, similar to the minimum
mass solar nebula. Such a gas reservoir at 6 Myr would promote the formation
and inwards migration of gas giant planets.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 9 page
The Geminga pulsar wind nebula in the mid-infrared and submillimetre
The nearby middle-aged Geminga pulsar has crossed the Galactic plane within the last ∼0.1 Myr. We present archival data from Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and from SCUBA and SCUBA-2 on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope to assess whether any midinfrared
and submillimetre emission arises from interaction of the pulsar wind nebula with the interstellar medium. A candidate shell and bow shock are reported. Given the low pulsar velocity and local density, dust grains appear able to penetrate into the nebula. A compact source seen towards the pulsar is fitted with a dust spectrum. If confirmed as a real association at higher resolution, this could be a circum-pulsar disc of at least a few Earth-masses, in which future planets could form
Sub-arcsecond high sensitivity measurements of the DG~Tau jet with e-MERLIN
We present very high spatial resolution deep radio continuum observations at
5 GHz (6 cm) made with e-MERLIN of the young stars DG Tau A and B. Assuming it
is launched very close (~=1 au) from the star, our results suggest that the DG
Tau A outflow initially starts as a poorly focused wind and undergoes
significant collimation further along the jet (~=50 au). We derive jet
parameters for DG Tau A and find an initial jet opening angle of 86 degrees
within 2 au of the source, a mass-loss rate of 1.5x10^-8 solar masses/yr for
the ionised component of the jet, and the total ejection/accretion ratio to
range from 0.06-0.3. These results are in line with predictions from MHD
jet-launching theories.Comment: Accepted MNRAS Letter
Single-dish 1-cm-band radio photometry of protoplanetary discs: few centimetre-sized dust grains?
Radio-wavelength observations of protoplanetary discs can show whether large dust grains (pebbles) have formed on the pathway to aggregation of planetary cores. The 100-m Green Bank Telescope was used to make a four-subband (26–40 GHz) photometric survey of the Taurus and Ophiuchus regions, which is nearly complete for class II systems above fixed millimetre-flux thresholds. There is evidence of anomalous microwave emission in 40 per cent of the systems, indicating that radio observations of protoplanetary discs need good spectral coverage to distinguish the presence of dust. At most, one-quarter of the systems are seen to host pebbles, of radii as large as 1 cm. The lack of pebble-dominated systems suggests that this is a short-lived phase in particle size evolution, and/or that pebbles only grow in limited areas of the disc. Either case supports models where grains of centimetre size rapidly fragment and/or drift towards the star, potentially feeding growing planets. In the best-fitting systems, including the 26–40 GHz data raises the detected dust mass by up to an order of magnitude, and the mass distribution of the discs may be flatter. Both of these phenomena could help to solve the ‘missing mass’ problem, where the solid budget in protoplanetary discs is compared with the substantial requirements of extrasolar-planet systems
New sub-millimeter limits on dust in the 55 Cancri planetary system
We present new, high-sensitivity sub-millimeter observations towards 55
Cancri, a nearby G8 star with one, or possibly two, known planetary
companion(s). Our 850 m map, obtained with the SCUBA instrument on the
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, shows three peaks of emission at the 2.5 mJy
level in the vicinity of the star's position. However, the observed peaks are
25\arcsec--40\arcsec away from the star and a deep -band optical image
reveals faint point sources that coincide with two of the sub-millimeter peaks.
Thus, we do not find evidence for dust emission spatially associated with 55
Cancri. The excess 60 m emission detected with ISO may originate from one
or more of the 850 m peaks that we attribute to background sources. Our
new results, together with the HST/NICMOS coronographic images in the
near-infrared, place stringent limits on the amount of dust in this planetary
system, and argue against the existence of a detectable circumstellar dust disk
around 55 Cnc.Comment: 11 pages, 2 PostScript figures, to appear in The Astrophysical
Journal Letter
Dust in the 55 Cancri planetary system
The presence of debris disks around 1-Gyr-old main sequence stars
suggests that an appreciable amount of dust may persist even in mature
planetary systems. Here we report the detection of dust emission from 55
Cancri, a star with one, or possibly two, planetary companions detected through
radial velocity measurements. Our observations at 850m and 450m imply
a dust mass of 0.0008-0.005 Earth masses, somewhat higher than that in the the
Kuiper Belt of our solar system. The estimated temperature of the dust grains
and a simple model fit both indicate a central disk hole of at least 10 AU in
radius. Thus, the region where the planets are detected is likely to be
significantly depleted of dust. Our results suggest that far-infrared and
sub-millimeter observations are powerful tools for probing the outer regions of
extrasolar planetary systems.Comment: 8 pages and 2 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journa
New constraints on the millimetre emission of six debris discs
The presence of dusty debris around main-sequence stars denotes the existence of planetary systems. Such debris discs are often identified by the presence of excess continuum emission at infrared and (sub-)millimetre wavelengths, with measurements at longer wavelengths tracing larger and cooler dust grains. The exponent of the slope of the disc emission at submillimetre wavelengths, ‘q’, defines the size distribution of dust grains in the disc. This size distribution is a function of the rigid strength of the dust producing parent planetesimals. As a part of the survey ‘PLAnetesimals around TYpical Pre-main seqUence Stars’, we observed six debris discs at 9 mm using the Australian Telescope Compact Array. We obtain marginal (∼3σ) detections of three targets: HD 105, HD 61005 and HD 131835. Upper limits for the three remaining discs, HD 20807, HD 109573 and HD 109085 provide further constraint of the (sub-)millimetre slope of their spectral energy distributions. The values of q (or their limits) derived from our observations are all smaller than the oft-assumed steady-state collisional cascade model (q = 3.5), but lie well within the theoretically expected range for debris discs q ∼ 3–4. The measured q values for our targets are all <3.3, consistent with both collisional modelling results and theoretical predictions for parent planetesimal bodies being ‘rubble piles’ held together loosely by their self-gravity
Resolved Debris Discs Around A Stars in the Herschel DEBRIS Survey
The majority of debris discs discovered so far have only been detected
through infrared excess emission above stellar photospheres. While disc
properties can be inferred from unresolved photometry alone under various
assumptions for the physical properties of dust grains, there is a degeneracy
between disc radius and dust temperature that depends on the grain size
distribution and optical properties. By resolving the disc we can measure the
actual location of the dust. The launch of Herschel, with an angular resolution
superior to previous far-infrared telescopes, allows us to spatially resolve
more discs and locate the dust directly. Here we present the nine resolved
discs around A stars between 20 and 40 pc observed by the DEBRIS survey. We use
these data to investigate the disc radii by fitting narrow ring models to
images at 70, 100 and 160 {\mu}m and by fitting blackbodies to full spectral
energy distributions. We do this with the aim of finding an improved way of
estimating disc radii for unresolved systems. The ratio between the resolved
and blackbody radii varies between 1 and 2.5. This ratio is inversely
correlated with luminosity and any remaining discrepancies are most likely
explained by differences to the minimum size of grain in the size distribution
or differences in composition. We find that three of the systems are well fit
by a narrow ring, two systems are borderline cases and the other four likely
require wider or multiple rings to fully explain the observations, reflecting
the diversity of planetary systems.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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