2006/09/05 by Jonathan P. Williams, Sean M. Andrews · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atmospheric sciences #Circumstellar disk #Circumstellar dust #Circumstellar envelope #Cirrus #Cosmic dust #Debris #Debris disk #Interplanetary dust cloud #James Clerk Maxwell Telescope #Millimeter #Opacity #Optics #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Planet #Planetary system #Planetesimal #Solar System #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/508919
published as Astrophys.J.653:1480-1485,2006 · accepted by ApJ
arxiv created 2006/09/05 · openalex publication_date 2006/12/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The nature of far-infrared dust emission toward main-sequence stars, whether interstellar or circumstellar, can be deduced from submillimeter photometry. We present JCMT/SCUBA flux measurements at 850 μm toward eight stars with large photospheric excesses at 60-100 μm. Five sources were detected at 3 σ or greater significance and one was marginally detected at 2.5 σ. The inferred dust masses and temperatures range from 0.033 to 0.24 M ⊕ and 43-65 K, respectively. The frequency behavior of the opacity, τ ν ∝ ν β , is relatively shallow, β < 1. These dust properties are characteristic of circumstellar material, most likely the debris from planetesimal collisions. The two nondetections have lower temperatures, 35-8 K, and steeper opacity indices, β > 1.5, that are more typical of interstellar cirrus. The confirmed disks all have inferred diameters ≳2'', most lie near the upper envelope of the debris disk mass distribution, and four are bright enough to be feasible for high-resolution imaging.