Resolving debris discs in the far-infrared: early highlights from the DEBRIS survey

TL;DR

This paper reports early Herschel observations of debris discs around nearby stars, resolving their structure and refining their physical properties, thus advancing understanding of planetary system formation.

Contribution

It provides the first spatially resolved far-infrared images of debris discs around specific nearby stars, enhancing knowledge of their sizes and characteristics.

Findings

Discs are spatially resolved around all three stars.

Disc sizes are comparable to the Solar System.

Refined estimates of disc luminosities, temperatures, and radii.

Abstract

We present results from the earliest observations of DEBRIS, a Herschel Key Programme to conduct a volume- and flux-limited survey for debris discs in A-type through M-type stars. PACS images (from chop/nod or scan-mode observations) at 100 and 160 micron are presented toward two A-type stars and one F-type star: beta Leo, beta UMa and eta Corvi. All three stars are known disc hosts. Herschel spatially resolves the dust emission around all three stars (marginally, in the case of beta UMa), providing new information about discs as close as 11 pc with sizes comparable to that of the Solar System. We have combined these data with existing flux density measurements of the discs to refine the SEDs and derive estimates of the fractional luminosities, temperatures and radii of the discs.