| Description |
The environment in which a star forms can potentially have a significant effect on the final planetary system that forms around it. We have recently carried out a WISE survey of the nearby, rich, young alpha Per cluster, a cluster essentially not observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our findings suggest that this cluster is deficient in debris disks relative to other clusters in the same age range. We propose to use Herschel-PACS observations of WISE-detected alpha Per debris disks to determine if their distribution in semimajor axes is consistent with dynamical interactions as a principal cause of the low alpha Per debris disk fraction. |
