2018/02/20 by D. M. Boneberg, D M Boneberg, S. Facchini +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Circumstellar dust #Circumstellar habitable zone #Exoplanet #Physics #Planet #Planetary system #RADIUS #Radial velocity #Snow line #Spectral energy distribution #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty486
10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2018/02/20 · openalex publication_date 2018/02/22 · arxiv updated 2018/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Protoplanetary discs around brown dwarfs and very low mass (VLM) stars offer some of the best prospects for forming Earth-sized planets in their habitable zones. To this end, we study the nature of the disc around the VLM star V410 X-ray 1, whose spectral energy distribution (SED) is indicative of an optically thick and very truncated dust disc, with our modelling suggesting an outer radius of only 0.6 au. We investigate two scenarios that could lead to such a truncation, and find that the observed SED is compatible with both. The first scenario involves the truncation of both the dust and gas in the disc, perhaps due to a previous dynamical interaction or the presence of an undetected companion. The second scenario involves the fact that a radial location of 0.6 au is close to the expected location of the H2O snowline in the disc. As such, a combination of efficient dust growth, radial migration, and subsequent fragmentation within the snowline leads to an optically thick inner dust disc and larger, optically thin outer dust disc. We find that a firm measurement of the CO J = 2–1 line flux would enable us to distinguish between these two scenarios, by enabling a measurement of the radial extent of gas in the disc. Many models we consider contain at least several Earth-masses of dust interior to 0.6 au, suggesting that V410 X-ray 1 could be a precursor to a system with tightly packed inner planets, such as TRAPPIST-1.