Debris Disk Composition: A Diagnostic Tool for Planet Formation and Migration

TL;DR

This paper discusses how debris disks around stars can reveal insights into planet formation, migration, and the composition of minor bodies, emphasizing the potential of upcoming telescopes to advance this understanding.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of debris disk composition as a diagnostic for planetary system evolution and advocates for the Origins Space Telescope to achieve detailed compositional insights.

Findings

Debris disks contain minor bodies similar to asteroids and comets.

Upcoming telescopes will improve understanding but have limitations in detecting cold ices.

Origins Space Telescope is essential for detailed compositional analysis.

Abstract

Debris disks are exoplanetary systems containing planets, minor bodies (such as asteroids and comets) and debris dust. Unseen planets are presumed to perturb the minor bodies into crossing orbits, generating small dust grains that are detected via remote sensing. Debris disks have been discovered around main sequence stars of a variety of ages (from 10 Myr to several Gyr) and stellar spectral types (from early A-type to M-type stars). As a result, they serve as excellent laboratories for understanding whether the architecture and the evolution of our Solar System is common or rare. This white paper addresses two outstanding questions in debris disk science: (1) Are debris disk minor bodies similar to asteroids and comets in our Solar System? (2) Do planets separate circumstellar material into distinct reservoirs and/or mix material during planet migration? We anticipate that SOFIA/HIRMES, JWST, and WFIRST/CGI will greatly improve our understanding of debris disk composition, enabling the astronomical community to answer these questions. However, we note that despite their observational power, these facilities will not provide large numbers of detections or detailed characterization of cold ices and silicates in the Trans Neptunian zone. Origins Space Telescope is needed to revolutionize our understanding of the bulk composition and mixing in exoplanetary systems.