Debris discs are belts of dust particles created from collisions of planetesimals (comets and asteroids) in extrasolar planetary systems. The prototype disc around Vega was discovered virgul25 years ago by IRAS, and virgul20 discs have been imaged to date, primarily by HST, SCUBA and Spitzer. Despite the relatively low numbers, debris discs are seen to be extraordinarily diverse in character, including systems with vast populations of comets or with perturbations by planets at tens of AU from the host star. Due to this low number, however, our knowledge of debris discs is incomplete; there has been no unbiased survey specifically designed to image a large number of discs. Spitzer greatly improved our understanding of the disc-rich A stars but the number of detections is still low for solar-analogue FGK stars and especially the numerous M stars. For Herschel, we therefore propose the DEBRIS (..Disc Emission via a Bias-free Reconnaissance in the Infrared/Submillimetre) Key Project which will probe 450 nearby A-M stellar systems for debris and measure Solar System dust levels in debris discs for the first time. The large sample is statistically robust and without bias, providing a rich legacy for debris disc and exo-planet science. This deep, flux-limited survey will obtain PACS 100/160 images of all 450 systems (472 fields due to wide binaries), and it will be possible to resolve discs toward each one with the PACS. high resolution. DEBRIS includes SPIRE imaging in systems where debris is detected with PACS (a rate of 50% is expected). The key science questions are: (a) which kinds of stars have debris and why? (b) what are the sizes, temperatures and masses of the debris discs? (c) what is the relation of resolved disc structures to the exo-planets? and (d) is our Kuiper Belt common or unusual? The Herschel DEBRIS Key Project will answer... these questions using Herschel.s high sensitivity, spectral coverage and resolution. Our team includes world experts in debris discs and exo-planet science from 8 countries.
Publication
Debris disc constraints on planetesimal formation . Krivov Alexander V. et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 474, Issue 2, p.2564-2575 . 474 . 10.1093\/mnras\/stx2932 . 2018MNRAS.474.2564K , An unbiased study of debris discs around A-type stars with Herschel . Thureau N. D. et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 445, Issue 3, p.2558-2573 . 445 . 10.1093\/mnras\/stu1864 . 2014MNRAS.445.2558T , Extragalactic number counts at 100 μm, free from cosmic variance . Sibthorpe B. et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 428, Issue 1, p.L6-L10 . 428 . 10.1093\/mnrasl\/sls002 . 2013MNRAS.428L...6S , A statistically significant lack of debris discs in medium separation binary systems . Yelverton Ben et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . null . null . 2019MNRAS.488.3588Y , The Correlation between Metallicity and Debris Disk Mass . Gáspár András et al. . The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 826, Issue 2, article id. 171, 14 pp. (2016). . 826 . 10.3847\/0004-637X\/826\/2\/171 . 2016ApJ...826..171G , The Collisional Evolution of Debris Disks . Gáspár András et al. . The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 768, Issue 1, article id. 25, 29 pp. (2013). . 768 . 10.1088\/0004-637X\/768\/1\/25 . 2013ApJ...768...25G , Stellar multiplicity and debris discs: an unbiased sample . Rodriguez David R. et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 449, Issue 3, p.3160-3170 . 449 . 10.1093\/mnras\/stv483 . ...harvard.edu/abs/2015MNRAS.449.3160R > 2015MNRAS.449.3160R , A-type Stellar Abundances: A Corollary to Herschel Observations of Debris Disks . Draper Zachary H. et al. . The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 857, Issue 2, article id. 93, 16 pp. (2018). . 857 . 10.3847\/1538-4357\/aab1fd . 2018ApJ...857...93D ,
Instrument
SPIRE_SpirePhoto_small, PACS_PacsPhoto_largeScan
Temporal Coverage
2010-03-25T21:31:28Z/2012-06-25T14:51:38Z
Version
SPG v14.2.0
Mission Description
Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009! It is the fourth 'cornerstone' mission in the ESA science programme. With a 3.5 m Cassegrain telescope it is the largest space telescope ever launched. It is performing photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 55-671 µm range, bridging the gap between earlier infrared space missions and groundbased facilities.
European Space Agency, 2012, Debris: Disc Emission Via A Bias-Free Reconnaissance In The Infrared/Sub-Millimetre, SPG v14.2.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-irtd9p6
