| Description |
Follow-up Herschel observations have recently confirmed the presenceof 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(virgul1% detection rate in the DEBRIS survey), raising the question of whetherthe debris might somehow be directly related to the neighboring planets. In order to assess whether low-mass planets are strongly correlatedwith dusty debris or whether this is just a chance coincidence, we proposeto dramatically increase the number of planet-bearing M stars observedby Herschel, from the current 3 up to a total of 20 stars. The proposedPACS 100/160 um images of 17 planet-bearing M stars will clarifywhether this class of system preferentially has orbiting debris.Should any new disks be detected, the close proximity of the targetM stars (virgul10 pc) makes them favorable candidates for resolved imaging,which may help to explain the unusual asymmetry in GJ 581.ssimilarly resolved disk. |
