2004/01/15 by Alycia J. Weinberger, A. J. Weinberger, E. E. Becklin +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Circumstellar disk #Circumstellar dust #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Planet #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Zodiacal light #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/382519
Accepted to AJ for April 2004 issue
arxiv created 2004/01/15 · openalex publication_date 2004/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A search for previously undetected optically thin disks around stars in the nearby, young, TW Hydrae Association (TWA) was conducted around 16 stars with sensitive 12 and 18 μm photometry. The survey could detect zodiacal-like dust, with temperature 200–300 K, at levels of L IR / L * = 7 × 10 -3 . Possible mid-infrared excess emission from TWA 17 was detected at the 2 σ level, but none of the other stars showed evidence for circumstellar dust. The rapid disappearance of large amounts of dust around the K- and M-type stars in this sample may mean that any planet formation in the terrestrial planet region was completed very quickly. There appears to be a bimodal distribution of dust disks in TWA, with stars having either copious or negligible warm dust.