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TOPIC: 61 Virginis

Blobrana

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Posts: 131433

Date: May 8 11:11 2017

HD 115617	Permalink

Title: ALMA observations of the multiplanet system 61 Vir: What lies outside super-Earth systems? Author: S. Marino, M. C. Wyatt, G. M. Kennedy, W. Holland, L. Matrà, A. Shannon, R. J. Ivison A decade of surveys has hinted at a possible higher occurrence rate of debris discs in systems hosting low mass planets. This could be due to common favourable forming conditions for rocky planets close in and planetesimals at large radii. In this paper we present the first resolved millimetre study of the debris disc in the 4.6 Gyr old multiplanet system 61 Vir, combining ALMA and JCMT data at 0.86 mm. We fit the data using a parametric disc model, finding that the disc of planetesimals extends from 30 AU to at least 150 AU, with a surface density distribution of millimetre sized grains with a power law slope of 0.1^{+1.1}_{-0.8}. We also present a numerical collisional model that can predict the evolution of the surface density of millimetre grains for a given primordial disc, finding that it does not necessarily have the same radial profile as the total mass surface density (as previous studies suggested for the optical depth), with the former being flatter. Finally, we find that if the planetesimal disc was stirred at 150 AU by an additional unseen planet, that planet should be more massive than 10 earth masses and lie between 10-20 AU. Lower planet masses and semi-major axes down to 4 AU are possible for eccentricities \gg 0.1. Read more (1448kb, PDF) __________________

Blobrana

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Posts: 131433

Date: Jun 13 21:30 2012

61 Virginis	Permalink

Title: Herschel imaging of 61 Vir: implications for the prevalence of debris in low-mass planetary systems Authors: M. C. Wyatt, G. Kennedy, B. Sibthorpe, A. Moro-Martin, J.-F. Lestrade, R. J. Ivison, B. Matthews, S. Udry, J. S. Greaves, P. Kalas, S. Lawler, K. Y. L. Su, G. H. Rieke, G. Bryden, J. Horner, J. J. Kavelaars, D. Wilner This paper describes Herschel observations of the nearby (8.5pc) G5V multi-exoplanet host star 61 Vir at 70-500micron carried out by the DEBRIS survey. These reveal emission that is extended out to >15arcsec with a morphology that can be fitted by a nearly edge-on (77deg inclination) radially broad (from 30AU to >100AU) debris disk of fractional luminosity 2.7x10^-5, with two unrelated sources nearby that are more prominent at longer wavelengths. Chance alignment with a background object seen at 1.4GHz provides potential for confusion, but the star's 1.4"/yr proper motion allows Spitzer 70micron images to confirm that what we are interpreting as disk emission really is circumstellar. Although the exact shape of the disk's inner edge is not well constrained, the region inside 30AU must be significantly depleted in planetesimals. This is readily explained if there are additional planets in the 0.5-30AU region, but is also consistent with collisional erosion. We also find tentative evidence that the presence of detectable debris around nearby stars correlates with the presence of the lowest mass planets that are detectable in current radial velocity surveys. Out of an unbiased sample of the nearest 60 G stars, 11 are known to have planets, of which 6 (including 61 Vir) have planets that are all less massive than Saturn, and 4 of these have evidence for debris. The debris toward one of these planet-hosts (HD20794) is reported here for the first time. This fraction (4/6) is higher than that expected for nearby field stars (15%), and implies that systems that form low-mass planets are also able to retain bright debris disks. We suggest that this correlation could arise because such planetary systems are dynamically stable and include regions that are populated with planetesimals in the formation process where the planetesimals can remain unperturbed over Gyr timescales. Read more (1675kb, PDF) __________________

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