FIVE DEBRIS DISKS NEWLY REVEALED IN SCATTERED LIGHT FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE NICMOS ARCHIVE

Journal Article · Sat May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/786/2/L23· OSTI ID:22365857

Soummer, Rémi; Perrin, Marshall D.; Pueyo, Laurent; Choquet, Élodie; Chen, Christine; Golimowski, David A.; Brendan Hagan, J.; Moerchen, Margaret; N'Diaye, Mamadou; Wolff, Schuyler; Debes, John; Hines, Dean C. ^[1]; Mittal, Tushar ^[2]; Rajan, Abhijith ^[3]; Schneider, Glenn ^[4]

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1. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
2. Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
3. Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85004 (United States)
4. Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

We have spatially resolved five debris disks (HD 30447, HD 35841, HD 141943, HD 191089, and HD 202917) for the first time in near-infrared scattered light by reanalyzing archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/NICMOS coronagraphic images obtained between 1999 and 2006. One of these disks (HD 202917) was previously resolved at visible wavelengths using the HST/Advanced Camera for Surveys. To obtain these new disk images, we performed advanced point-spread function subtraction based on the Karhunen-Loève Image Projection algorithm on recently reprocessed NICMOS data with improved detector artifact removal (Legacy Archive PSF Library And Circumstellar Environments (LAPLACE) Legacy program). Three of the disks (HD 30447, HD 35841, and HD 141943) appear edge-on, while the other two (HD 191089 and HD 202917) appear inclined. The inclined disks have been sculpted into rings; in particular, the disk around HD 202917 exhibits strong asymmetries. All five host stars are young (8-40 Myr), nearby (40-100 pc) F and G stars, and one (HD 141943) is a close analog to the young Sun during the epoch of terrestrial planet formation. Our discoveries increase the number of debris disks resolved in scattered light from 19 to 23 (a 21% increase). Given their youth, proximity, and brightness (V = 7.2-8.5), these targets are excellent candidates for follow-up investigations of planet formation at visible wavelengths using the HST/Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph coronagraph, at near-infrared wavelengths with the Gemini Planet Imager and Very Large Telescope/SPHERE, and at thermal infrared wavelengths with the James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam and MIRI coronagraphs.

• OSTI ID: 22365857
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 786, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ALGORITHMS
BRIGHTNESS
CAMERAS
IMAGE PROCESSING
IMAGES
PLANETS
SPACE
STAR EVOLUTION
SUN
TELESCOPES
VISIBLE RADIATION
WAVELENGTHS