| Description |
Dust in debris disks is produced by colliding or evaporating planetesimals, the remnant of the planet formation process. Warm dust disks, known by their emission at =<24
mic, are rare (4% of FGK main-sequence stars), and specially interesting because they trace material in the region likely to host terrestrial planets, where the dust has very short dynamical
lifetimes. Dust in this region comes from very recent asteroidal collisions, migrating Kuiper Belt planetesimals, or migrating dust.
NASA.s Kepler mission has just released a list of 1235 candidate transiting planets, and in parallel, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has just completed a sensitive all-sky mapping in the 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 micron bands. By cross-identifying the WISE sources with Kepler candidates as well as with other transiting planetary systems we have identified 21 transiting planet hosts with previously unknown warm debris disks.
We propose Herschel/PACS 100 and 160 micron photometry of this sample, to determine whether the warm dust in these systems represents stochastic outbursts of local dust production, or simply the Wien side of emission from a cold outer dust belt. These data will allow us to put constraints in the dust temperature and infrared luminosity of these systems, allowing them to be understood in the context of other debris disks and disk evolution theory.
This program represents a unique opportunity to exploit the synergy between three great space facilities: Herschel, Kepler, and WISE. The transiting planet sample hosts will remain among the most studied group of stars for the years to come, and our knowledge of their planetary architecture will remain incomplete if we do not understand the characteristics of their debris disks. |
