Cold debris disks around nearby stars

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sebastian Wolf
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2010 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 175010019

The question of how common planetary systems are is of fundamental importance for astrophysics. The Herschel Space Observatory key program “Dust around nearby stars” (DUNES) will address the question about the universality of planets/planetary systems formation in disks around young stars. It is a systematic search program for faint, cold debris disks to find the fractional incidence of planetesimal systems in the solar neighbourhood. More specifically, DUNES is a sensitivity- and volume-limited (d < 25 pc) survey of 133 stars of age ~ 0.1 to ~ 10 Gyr and spectral types F, G, and K.The goal of the proposed project is to perform a central part of the analysis of the DUNES observations. The core task is to model the thermal reemission of the DUNES targets and – as far as available – additional observables (e.g., multi-wavelength images, polarization measurements) in order to constrain the disk structure and dust properties. In collaboration with the other teams within the DUNES consortium this modeling will allow to derive conclusions about the dependence of the planetesimal formation on the stellar mass, the collisional and dynamical evolution of planetesimal belts and possible correlations between the existence of dust disks and the presence of planets.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants