2002/07/30 by Aigen Li, J. I. Lunine, Li, Aigen +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0207642
10 pages, 2 figures, submitted to ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2002/07/30 · openalex publication_date 2002/07/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of dust disks are widely used to infer dust properties (compositions and sizes) and disk structures (dust spatial distributions) which might be indicative of the presence or absence of planets or smaller bodies like asteroids and comets in the disk. Based on modelling of the SED of HR 4796A, a young main-sequence star with the largest fractional infrared (IR) emission, we show that the SED alone is not a good discriminator of dust size, spatial distribution (and composition if no spectroscopic data are available). A combination of SED, mid-IR spectroscopy, and coronagraphic near-IR imaging of scattered starlight and mid-IR imaging of dust thermal emission provides a better understanding of these properties.