Spitzer Space Telescope - General Observer Proposal #40096


Debris Dust around Extrasolar Planetary Systems

Principal Investigator: John Carpenter
           Institution: California Institute of Technology

     Technical Contact: John Carpenter, California Institute of Technology

Science Category: circumstellar/debris disks 
 Observing Modes: IrsStare MipsPhot 
  Hours Approved: 96.6 

Abstract:
Spitzer is extending the IRAS legacy by surveying the prevalence of debris disks
over all stellar masses, ages, and environments. Hundreds of debris systems have
now been detected, and raises the exciting possibility that planet formation is
a common outcome of the star formation process. While the statistics of debris
disks are becoming well established, the properties of the planetary systems
that ignite the collisional cascade to produce the debris dust remain in
question. To advance our understanding of the debris disks discovered with
Spitzer, we propose to obtain a comprehensive census of debris dust around
extrasolar planetary systems. Given that the planetary masses and orbits are
known from radial velocity measurements, the proposed observations will
establish any empirical relationships between the frequency, temperature, and
luminosity of debris disks with planetary mass and orbits. These data will also
test basic principles of debris disk models by determining i) if the warm inner
disk is truncated by gravitational interactions with planets, ii) whether the
expected migration of hot Jupiters disrupts the planetesimal belt, and iii) if
massive planets accelerate collisional processing of the planetesimal belt. Any
correlations between debris properties and planetary architectures identified
from this survey will serve as a template to interpret the larger ensemble of
debris systems discovered with Spitzer.