A young white dwarf with an infrared excess

S. Xu, M. Jura, B. Pantoja, B. Klein, B. Zuckerman, K. Y.L. Su, H. Y.A. Meng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using observations of Spitzer/IRAC, we report the serendipitous discovery of excess infrared emission from a single white dwarf PG 0010+280. At a temperature of 27,220 K and a cooling age of 16 Myr, it is the hottest and youngest white dwarf to display an excess at 3-8 μm. The infrared excess can be fit by either an opaque dust disk within the tidal radius of the white dwarf or a 1300 K blackbody, possibly from an irradiated substellar object or a re-heated giant planet. PG 0010+280 has two unique properties that are different from white dwarfs with a dust disk: (i) relatively low emission at 8 μm and (ii) non-detection of heavy elements in its atmosphere from high-resolution spectroscopic observations with Keck/HIRES. The origin of the infrared excess remains unclear.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberL5
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume806
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 10 2015

Keywords

  • circumstellar matter
  • minor planets asteroids: general
  • white dwarfs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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