A dusty disk around gd 362, a white dwarf with a uniquely high photospheric metal abundance
Sep, 2005
12 pages
Published in:
- Astrophys.J.Lett. 632 (2005) L119-L122
e-Print:
- astro-ph/0509193 [astro-ph]
DOI:
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Abstract: (arXiv)
Eighteen years after an infrared excess was discovered associated with the white dwarf G29-38, we report ground-based measurements (JHKL'N') with mJy-level sensitivity of GD 362 that show it to be a second single white dwarf with an infrared excess. As a first approximation, the excess around GD 362, which amounts to about 3% of the total stellar luminosity, can be explained by emission from a passive, flat, opaque dust disk that lies within the Roche radius of the white dwarf. The dust may have been produced by the tidal disruption of a large parent body such as an asteroid. Accretion from this circumstellar disk could account for the remarkably high abundance of metals in the star's photosphere.- circumstellar matter
- minor planets, asteroids
- white dwarfs
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