Revealing Asymmetries in the HD 181327 Debris Disk: A Recent Massive Collision or ISM Warping

TL;DR

This study uses advanced imaging and analysis techniques on Hubble data to reveal detailed asymmetries and scattering properties of the HD 181327 debris disk, suggesting recent collisions or ISM interactions.

Contribution

It introduces new multi-roll image processing and iterative deprojection methods to better understand debris disk geometry and asymmetries.

Findings

The scattering phase function is more forward scattering than previously thought.

Empirical phase function varies with stellocentric distance, indicating size segregation.

Detected large-scale asymmetries suggest recent collisions or ISM warping.

Abstract

New multi-roll coronagraphic images of the HD 181327 debris disk obtained using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reveal the debris ring in its entirety at high S/N and unprecedented spatial resolution. We present and apply a new multi-roll image processing routine to identify and further remove quasi-static PSF-subtraction residuals and quantify systematic uncertainties. We also use a new iterative image deprojection technique to constrain the true disk geometry and aggressively remove any surface brightness asymmetries that can be explained without invoking dust density enhancements/deficits. The measured empirical scattering phase function for the disk is more forward scattering than previously thought and is not well-fit by a Henyey-Greenstein function. The empirical scattering phase function varies with stellocentric distance, consistent with the expected radiation pressured-induced size segregation exterior to the belt. Within the belt, the empirical scattering phase function contradicts unperturbed debris ring models, suggesting the presence of an unseen planet. The radial profile of the flux density is degenerate with a radially-varying scattering phase function; therefore estimates of the ring's true width and edge slope may be highly uncertain. We detect large scale asymmetries in the disk, consistent with either the recent catastrophic disruption of a body with mass >1% the mass of Pluto, or disk warping due to strong interactions with the interstellar medium (ISM).