A Search for Collisions and Planet–Disk Interactions in the Beta Pictoris Disk with 26 Years of High-precision HST/STIS Imaging

Abstract

β Pictoris's well-studied debris disk and two known giant planets, in combination with the stability of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS) (and now also JWST), offers a unique opportunity to test planet–disk interaction models and to observe recent planetesimal collisions. We present HST/STIS coronagraphic imaging from two new epochs of data taken between 2021 and 2023, complementing earlier data taken in 1997 and 2012. This data set enables a temporal comparison with the longest baseline and highest precision of any debris disk to date, with sensitivity to variations in temporal surface brightness of sub-percent levels in the midplane of the disk. While no localized changes in surface brightness are detected, which would be indicative of a recent planetesimal collision, there is a tentative brightening of the southeast side of the disk over the past decade. We link the constraints on surface brightness variations to dynamical models of the planetary system’s evolution and to the collisional history of planetesimals. Using a coupled collisional model and injection/recovery framework, we estimate sensitivity to expanding collisional debris down to a Ceres mass per progenitor in the most sensitive regions of the disk midplane. These results demonstrate the capabilities of long-baseline, temporal studies with HST (and also soon with JWST) for constraining the physical processes occurring within debris disks.

Keywords

• Debris disks