A Spitzer infrared spectrograph study of debris disks around planet-host stars

Abstract

Since giant planets scatter planetesimals within a few tidal radii of their orbits, the locations of existing planetesimal belts indicate regions where giant planet formation failed in bygone protostellar disks. Infrared observations of circumstellar dust produced by colliding planetesimals are therefore powerful probes of the formation histories of known planets. Here we present new Spitzer infrared spectrograph (IRS) spectrophotometry of 111 solar-type stars, including 105 planet hosts. Our observations reveal 11 debris disks, including two previously undetected debris disks orbiting HD 108874 and HD 130322. Combining the 32μm spectrophotometry with previously published MIPS photometry, we find that the majority of debris disks around solar-type stars have temperatures in the range 60 ≲ Tdust ≲ 100 K. Assuming a dust temperature Tdust = 70 K, which is representative of the nine debris disks detected by both IRS and MIPS, debris rings surrounding Sun-like stars orbit between 15 and 240 AU depending on the mean particle size. Our observations imply that the planets detected by radial-velocity searches formed within 240 AU of their parent stars. If any of the debris disks studied here have mostly large, blackbody emitting grains, their companion giant planets must have formed in a narrow region between the ice line and 15 AU. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.