The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
JWST/NIRCam Detection of the Fomalhaut C Debris Disk in Scattered Light
- Kellen Lawson,
- Joshua E. Schlieder,
- Jarron M. Leisenring,
- Ell Bogat,
- Charles A. Beichman,
- Geoffrey Bryden,
- András Gáspár,
- Tyler D. Groff,
- Michael W. McElwain,
- Michael R. Meyer,
- Thomas Barclay,
- Per Calissendorff,
- Matthew De Furio,
- Yiting Li,
- Marcia J. Rieke,
- Marie Ygouf,
- Thomas P. Greene,
- Julien H. Girard,
- Mario Gennaro,
- Jens Kammerer,
- Armin Rest,
- Thomas L. Roellig,
- Ben Sunnquist
Affiliations
- Kellen Lawson
- ORCiD
- NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ; [email protected]
- Joshua E. Schlieder
- ORCiD
- NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ; [email protected]
- Jarron M. Leisenring
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Ell Bogat
- ORCiD
- NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20782, USA
- Charles A. Beichman
- ORCiD
- NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Geoffrey Bryden
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- András Gáspár
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Tyler D. Groff
- ORCiD
- NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ; [email protected]
- Michael W. McElwain
- ORCiD
- NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ; [email protected]
- Michael R. Meyer
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Thomas Barclay
- ORCiD
- NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ; [email protected]
- Per Calissendorff
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Matthew De Furio
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Yiting Li
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan , 1085 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Marcia J. Rieke
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Marie Ygouf
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91011, USA
- Thomas P. Greene
- ORCiD
- NASA Ames Research Center , MS 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
- Julien H. Girard
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Mario Gennaro
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; The William H. Miller III Department of Physics & Astronomy, Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Jens Kammerer
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
- Armin Rest
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; The William H. Miller III Department of Physics & Astronomy, Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Thomas L. Roellig
- ORCiD
- NASA Ames Research Center , MS 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
- Ben Sunnquist
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad4496
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 967,
no. 1
p. L8
Abstract
Observations of debris disks offer important insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Though M dwarfs make up approximately 80% of nearby stars, very few M dwarf debris disks have been studied in detail—making it unclear how or if the information gleaned from studying debris disks around more massive stars extends to the more abundant M dwarf systems. We report the first scattered-light detection of the debris disk around the M4 star Fomalhaut C using JWST's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam; 3.6 and 4.4 μ m). This result adds to the prior sample of only four M dwarf debris disks with detections in scattered light and marks the latest spectral type and oldest star among them. The size and orientation of the disk in these data are generally consistent with the prior Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array submillimeter detection. Though no companions are identified, these data provide strong constraints on their presence—with sensitivity sufficient to recover sub-Saturn mass objects in the vicinity of the disk. This result illustrates the unique capability of JWST to uncover elusive M dwarf debris disks in scattered light and lays the groundwork for deeper studies of such objects in the 2–5 μ m regime.
Keywords
