Subtle and Spectacular: Diverse White Dwarf Debris Disks Revealed by JWST
J. Farihi, K.Y.L. Su, C. Melis, S. J. Kenyon, A. Swan, S. Redfield, M., C. Wyatt, J. H. Debes

TL;DR
This study reports 12 new detections of warm debris disks around white dwarfs using JWST, revealing diverse mineralogical features and providing insights into dust composition, origin, and ongoing collisional processes.
Contribution
It presents the first comprehensive spectroscopic survey of white dwarf debris disks with JWST, uncovering subtle and extreme features, and expanding mineralogical understanding of these disks.
Findings
Detection of the faintest infrared excesses around white dwarfs.
Identification of the strongest silicate emission features known.
Discovery of disks with featureless, high-temperature dust continuum.
Abstract
This letter reports 12 novel spectroscopic detections of warm circumstellar dust orbiting polluted white dwarfs using JWST MIRI. The disks span two orders of magnitude in fractional infrared brightness and more than double the number of white dwarf dust spectra available for mineralogical study. Among the highlights are: i) the two most subtle infrared excesses yet detected, ii) the strongest silicate emission features known for any debris disk orbiting any main-sequence or white dwarf star, iii) one disk with a thermal continuum but no silicate emission, and iv) three sources with likely spectral signatures of silica glass. The near ubiquity of solid-state emission requires small dust grains that are optically thin, and thus must be replenished on year-to-decade timescales by ongoing collisions. The disk exhibiting a featureless continuum can only be fit by dust temperatures in excess…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAstrophysical Phenomena and Observations · Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
