Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope
We present a provisory scattered-light detection of the Vega debris disk using deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) coronagraphy (PID 16666). At only 7.7 pc, Vega is immensely important in debris disk studies both for its prominence and also because it allows the highest physical resolution among all d...
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| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astronomical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad67cb |
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| author | Schuyler G. Wolff András Gáspár George H. Rieke Jarron M. Leisenring Kate Su David J. Wilner Luca Matrà Marie Ygouf Nicholas P. Ballering |
| author_facet | Schuyler G. Wolff András Gáspár George H. Rieke Jarron M. Leisenring Kate Su David J. Wilner Luca Matrà Marie Ygouf Nicholas P. Ballering |
| author_sort | Schuyler G. Wolff |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We present a provisory scattered-light detection of the Vega debris disk using deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) coronagraphy (PID 16666). At only 7.7 pc, Vega is immensely important in debris disk studies both for its prominence and also because it allows the highest physical resolution among all debris systems relative to temperature zones around the star. We employ the STIS coronagraph’s widest wedge position and classical reference differential imaging to achieve among the lowest surface-brightness sensitivities to date ( $\sim 4\,\mu {{\rm{Jy}}\,{\rm{arcsec}}}^{-2}$ ) at wide separations using 32 orbits in Cycle 29. We detect a halo extending from the inner edge of our effective inner working angle at 10.″5 out to the photon noise floor at 30″ (80–230 au). The face-on orientation of the system and the lack of a perfectly color-matched point-spread function star have posed significant challenges to the reductions, particularly regarding artifacts from the imperfect color matching. However, we find that a halo of small dust grains provides the best explanation for the observed signal. Unlike Fomalhaut (a close twin to Vega in luminosity, distance, and age), there is no clear distinction in scattered light between the parent planetesimal belt observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the extended dust halo. These HST observations complement JWST GTO Cycle 1 observations of the system with NIRCam and MIRI. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3fd7292b942d490196dfeab89f9ee6fd |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1538-3881 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astronomical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-3fd7292b942d490196dfeab89f9ee6fd2025-08-20T02:12:30ZengIOP PublishingThe Astronomical Journal1538-38812024-01-01168623610.3847/1538-3881/ad67cbDeep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space TelescopeSchuyler G. Wolff0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9977-8255András Gáspár1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8612-3236George H. Rieke2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2303-6519Jarron M. Leisenring3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0834-6140Kate Su4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-5580David J. Wilner5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1526-7587Luca Matrà6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4705-3188Marie Ygouf7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7591-2731Nicholas P. Ballering8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4276-3730Steward Observatory and the Department of Astronomy, The University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; sgwolff@arizona.eduSteward Observatory and the Department of Astronomy, The University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; sgwolff@arizona.eduSteward Observatory and the Department of Astronomy, The University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; sgwolff@arizona.eduSteward Observatory and the Department of Astronomy, The University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; sgwolff@arizona.eduSteward Observatory and the Department of Astronomy, The University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; sgwolff@arizona.eduCenter for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USASchool of Physics, Trinity College Dublin , the University of Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, IrelandJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91109, USADepartment of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USAWe present a provisory scattered-light detection of the Vega debris disk using deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) coronagraphy (PID 16666). At only 7.7 pc, Vega is immensely important in debris disk studies both for its prominence and also because it allows the highest physical resolution among all debris systems relative to temperature zones around the star. We employ the STIS coronagraph’s widest wedge position and classical reference differential imaging to achieve among the lowest surface-brightness sensitivities to date ( $\sim 4\,\mu {{\rm{Jy}}\,{\rm{arcsec}}}^{-2}$ ) at wide separations using 32 orbits in Cycle 29. We detect a halo extending from the inner edge of our effective inner working angle at 10.″5 out to the photon noise floor at 30″ (80–230 au). The face-on orientation of the system and the lack of a perfectly color-matched point-spread function star have posed significant challenges to the reductions, particularly regarding artifacts from the imperfect color matching. However, we find that a halo of small dust grains provides the best explanation for the observed signal. Unlike Fomalhaut (a close twin to Vega in luminosity, distance, and age), there is no clear distinction in scattered light between the parent planetesimal belt observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the extended dust halo. These HST observations complement JWST GTO Cycle 1 observations of the system with NIRCam and MIRI.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad67cbDebris disksCircumstellar dust |
| spellingShingle | Schuyler G. Wolff András Gáspár George H. Rieke Jarron M. Leisenring Kate Su David J. Wilner Luca Matrà Marie Ygouf Nicholas P. Ballering Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope The Astronomical Journal Debris disks Circumstellar dust |
| title | Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope |
| title_full | Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope |
| title_fullStr | Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope |
| title_short | Deep Search for a Scattered Light Dust Halo Around Vega with the Hubble Space Telescope |
| title_sort | deep search for a scattered light dust halo around vega with the hubble space telescope |
| topic | Debris disks Circumstellar dust |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad67cb |
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