| Description |
Follow-up Herschel observations have recently confirmed the presence
of a resolved debris disk around GJ 581, a nearby M star with 4 low-mass
(super-Earth) planets. Debris disks around M stars are exceedingly rare
(~1% detection rate in the DEBRIS survey), raising the question of whether
the debris might somehow be directly related to the neighboring planets.
In order to assess whether low-mass planets are strongly correlated
with dusty debris or whether this is just a chance coincidence, we propose
to dramatically increase the number of planet-bearing M stars observed
by Herschel, from the current 3 up to a total of 20 stars. The proposed
PACS 100/160 um images of 17 planet-bearing M stars will clarify
whether this class of system preferentially has orbiting debris.
Should any new disks be detected, the close proximity of the target
M stars (~10 pc) makes them favorable candidates for resolved imaging,
which may help to explain the unusual asymmetry in GJ 581s
similarly resolved disk. |
