A significant fraction of main-sequence stars are encircled by dusty debris disks. The short lived dust particles of these disks are believed to be replenished through destructive collisions between unseen planetesimals whose orbits are stirred up by some mechanism. In the literature three candidate mechanisms compete: the most commonly invoked self-stirring, the giant planet induced planetary stirring and close stellar flyby. Here we propose to study 10 carefully selected debris disks with Herschel/PACS and Herschel/SPIRE, where young age and a rough estimate of disk size from Spitzer observations hint for stirring mechanisms other than self-stirring. With the new observations we will resolve the debris disks at 70 micron (and in some cases at 100/160 micron as well) and will analyze in detail their structure and to identify stirring mechanism. In our programme we aim to 1) resolve the dust disks and characterize their spectral energy distributions;2) to study the radial and azimuthal distributions of the cold debris; 3) to identify the stirring mechanism in the disks;4) to perform a detailed investigation of HR 8799 a star with three large outer planets. The proposed observations will contribute to a deeper understanding of the stirring mechanisms by utilizing the superior spatial resolution of Herschel.The total requested time is 14.8 hours.
Publication
The dust grain size-stellar luminosity trend in debris discs | Pawellek Nicole et al. | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Volume 454 Issue 3 p.3207-3221 | 454 | 10.1093/mnras/stv2142 | 2015MNRAS.454.3207P | http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015MNRAS.454.3207P
Stirring in massive young debris discs from spatially resolved Herschel images | Moor A. et al. | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Volume 447 Issue 1 p.577-597 | 447 | 10.1093/mnras/stu2442 | 2015MNRAS.447..577M | http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015MNRAS.447..577M
Disk Radii and Grain Sizes in Herschel-resolved Debris Disks | Pawellek Nicole et al. | The Astrophysical Journal Volume 792 Issue 1 article id. 65 19 pp. (2014). | 792 | 10.1088/0004-637X/792/1/65 | 2014ApJ...792...65P | http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014ApJ...792...65P
Instrument
PACS_PacsPhoto_largeScan, SPIRE_SpirePhoto_small
Temporal Coverage
2011-03-13T22:02:34Z/2012-03-14T15:56:46Z
Version
SPG v14.2.0
Mission Description
Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009! It is the fourth cornerstone mission in the ESA science programme. With a 3.5 m Cassegrain telescope it is the largest space telescope ever launched. It is performing photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 55-671 µm range, bridging the gap between earlier infrared space missions and groundbased facilities.
European Space Agency, abraham et al., 2012, 'Spatially resolved far-infrared imaging of bright debris disks:studying the disk structure and the stirring mechanism.', SPG v14.2.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-79eocxj
