Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 722, Issue 1, Pages 725-736Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/722/1/725
Keywords
planetary systems; white dwarfs
Categories
Funding
- NASA
- NSF
- W.M. Keck Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1003318] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Infrared studies have revealed debris likely related to planet formation in orbit around similar to 30% of youthful, intermediate mass, main-sequence stars. We present evidence, based on atmospheric pollution by various elements heavier than helium, that a comparable fraction of the white dwarf descendants of such main-sequence stars are orbited by planetary systems. These systems have survived, at least in part, through all stages of stellar evolution that precede the white dwarf. During the time interval (similar to 200 million years) that a typical polluted white dwarf in our sample has been cooling it has accreted from its planetary system the mass of one of the largest asteroids in our solar system (e. g., Vesta or Ceres). Usually, this accreted mass will be only a fraction of the total mass of rocky material that orbits these white dwarfs; for plausible planetary system configurations we estimate that this total mass is likely to be at least equal to that of the Sun's asteroid belt, and perhaps much larger. We report abundances of a suite of eight elements detected in the little studied star G241-6 that we find to be among the most heavily polluted of all moderately bright white dwarfs.
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