Simultaneous emission from dust and gas in the planetary debris orbiting a white dwarf
ABSTRACT There is increasing evidence for the presence and variability of circumstellar dust and gas around white dwarfs that are polluted with exoplanetary material, although the origin of this dust and gas remains debated. This paper presents the first near-simultaneous observations of both circumstellar dust (via broad-band emission) and gas (via emission lines) around a polluted white dwarf. From the optical spectra the gaseous emission lines, notably the calcium infrared triplet and magnesium lines, show significant increases and decreases in their strength over time-scales of weeks, while the oxygen and iron lines remain relatively stable. Near-infrared JHK$_{\rm s}$ photometry reveals dust emission changes of up to 0.2 magnitudes in the K$_{\rm s}$ band over similar time-scales, marking the shortest variability time-scales observed to date. The two epochs with the strongest emission were correlated between the dust (K$_{\rm s}$-band brightening) and gas (strengthened calcium and magnesium lines), showing for the first time that the dust and gas must be produced near-simultaneously with a common origin, likely in collisions.
Authors
- Christopher J. Manser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1543-5405)
- S. T. Hodgkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5470-3962)
- Dimitri Veras (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8014-6162)
- Odette Toloza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2398-719X)
- Andrew Swan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6515-9854)
- Laura K. Rogers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3553-9474)
- Erik Dennihy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2852-268X)
- Samuel Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9372-4611)
- N. P. Gentile Fusillo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6428-4378)
- Carl Melis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9834-7579)
- M. Kissler‐Patig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5908-1488)
- Amy Bonsor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8070-1901)
- Siyi Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8808-4282)
- Boris Gänsicke
Institutions
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- University of Trieste (IT)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- European Space Agency (FR)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- University of Warwick (GB)
- European Space Astronomy Centre (ES)
- Gemini North Observatory (US)
- Institute of Astronomy (RU)
- Astronomy and Space (AU)
- Millenium Nucleus for Planet Formation (CL)
- Imperial College London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters
- Published
- 2024-11-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slae117
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.66
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Imperial College London
- European Commission