EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 17, EPSC2024-1197, 2024, updated on 03 Jul 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2024-1197
Europlanet Science Congress 2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Using debris disk observations to infer exoplanets orbiting within or outside a planetesimal belt

Thomas Stuber1, Torsten Löhne2, and Sebastian Wolf3
Thomas Stuber et al.
  • 1Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
  • 2Astrophysikalisches Institut und Universitätssternwarte, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany
  • 3Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

We analyzed the potential to infer the presence of an exoplanet via spatially resolved observations of a coexisting debris disk.
Using numerical simulations, we investigated the observable effects on a cold debris disk that are caused by secular gravitational perturbations. The perturbations originate from an exoplanet on an eccentric orbit either within (~ 40 au) or outside (~ 500 au) the planetesimal belt. We identified features in the resulting brightness distributions that are suitable to distinguish between those two types of systems and showed that these features are possibly detectable with present observatories, especially with combined observations using JWST/MIRI and ALMA.

How to cite: Stuber, T., Löhne, T., and Wolf, S.: Using debris disk observations to infer exoplanets orbiting within or outside a planetesimal belt, Europlanet Science Congress 2024, Berlin, Germany, 8–13 Sep 2024, EPSC2024-1197, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2024-1197, 2024.