Gas Debris Disks: A New Way to Produce Dust Patterns

[摘要] Debris disks like those around Fomalhaut and Beta Pictoris show striking dust patterns often attributed to planets. But adding a bit of gas to our models of these disks--too little to detect-could alter this interpretation. Small amounts of gas lead to new dynamical instabilities that may mimic the narrow eccentric rings and other structures planets would create in a gas-free disk. rll discuss these phenomena and whether or not we can still use dust patterns as indicators of hidden exoplanets.

[发布日期] 2012-08-06

[学科分类] 天体物理学