Debris Disks around Sun-like Stars

We have observed nearly 200 FGK stars at 24 and 70 mu m with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We identify excess infrared emission, including a number of cases where the observed flux is more than 10 times brighter than the predicted photospheric flux, and interpret these signatures as evidence of debri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2008-02, Vol.674 (2), p.1086-1105
Main Authors: Trilling, D. E, Bryden, G, Beichman, C. A, Rieke, G. H, Su, K. Y. L, Stansberry, J. A, Blaylock, M, Stapelfeldt, K. R, Beeman, J. W, Haller, E. E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We have observed nearly 200 FGK stars at 24 and 70 mu m with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We identify excess infrared emission, including a number of cases where the observed flux is more than 10 times brighter than the predicted photospheric flux, and interpret these signatures as evidence of debris disks in those systems. We combine this sample of FGK stars with similar published results to produce a sample of more than 350 main sequence AFGKM stars. The incidence of debris disks is 4.2 super(+) sub(-) super(2) sub(1) super(.) sub(.) super(0) sub(1)% at 24 mu m for a sample of 213 Sun-like (FG) stars and 16.4 super(+) sub(2) super(2) sub(.) super(.) sub(9) super(8-)% at 70 mu m for 225 Sun-like (FG) stars. We find that the excess rates for A, F, G, and K stars are statistically indistinguishable, but with a suggestion of decreasing excess rate toward the later spectral types; this may be an age effect. The lack of strong trend among FGK stars of comparable ages is surprising, given the factor of 50 change in stellar luminosity across this spectral range. We also find that the incidence of debris disks declines very slowly beyond ages of 1 billion years.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1086/525514