The Drop during Less than 300 days of a Dusty White Dwarf's Infrared Luminosity

Abstract

We report Spitzer/IRAC photometry of WD J0959-0200, a white dwarf that displays excess infrared radiation from a disk, likely produced by a tidally disrupted planetesimal. We find that in 2010, the fluxes in both 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m decreased ~ 35% in less than 300 days. The drop in the infrared luminosity is likely due to an increase of the inner disk radius from one of two scenarios: (i) a recent planetesimal impact; (ii) instability in the circumstellar disk. The current situation is tantalizing; high sensitivity, high cadence infrared studies will be a new tool to study the interplay between a disk and its host white dwarf star.

arXiv commentApJ Letters, accepted

References in corpus (43)

• The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope
• The Spitzer Space Telescope Mission
• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• The disc instability model of dwarf-novae and low-mass X-ray binary transients
• A Tidally-Disrupted Asteroid Around the White Dwarf G29-38
• Are There Unstable Planetary Systems Around White Dwarfs?
• A gaseous metal disk around a white dwarf
• The Chemical Composition of an Extrasolar Minor Planet
• Infrared Signatures of Disrupted Minor Planets at White Dwarfs
• Pollution of single white dwarfs by accretion of many small asteroids
• Dynamical effects of stellar mass loss on a Kuiper-like belt
• Chemical Abundances in the Externally Polluted White Dwarf GD 40: Evidence of a Rocky Extrasolar Minor Planet
• A Dusty Disk Around GD 362, a White Dwarf With a Uniquely High Photospheric Metal Abundance
• Simulations of two-planet systems through all phases of stellar evolution: implications for the instability boundary and white dwarf pollution
• Eccentric Planets and Stellar Evolution as a Cause of Polluted White Dwarfs
• Elemental Compositions of Two Extrasolar Rocky Planetesimals
• Global Models of Runaway Accretion in White Dwarf Debris Disks
• Constraints on the Lifetimes of Disks Resulting from Tidally Destroyed Rocky Planetary Bodies
• The New Class of Dusty DAZ White Dwarfs
• DA white dwarfs in SDSS DR7 and a search for infrared excess emission
• Runaway accretion of metals from compact debris disks onto white dwarfs
• Metal accretion onto white dwarfs caused by Poynting-Robertson drag on their debris disks
• Long-term evolution of three-planet systems to the post-Main Sequence and beyond
• The WIRED Survey II: Infrared Excesses in the SDSS DR7 White Dwarf Catalog
• Echoes of a decaying planetary system: the gaseous and dusty disks surrounding three white dwarfs
• Excess Infrared Radiation from a Massive DAZ White Dwarf: GD362 - a Debris Disk?
• The chemical diversity of exo-terrestrial planetary debris around white dwarfs
• Strengthening the Case for Asteroidal Accrection: Evidence for Subtle and Diverse Disks at White Dwarfs
• Stochastic accretion of planetesimals onto white dwarfs: constraints on the mass distribution of accreted material from atmospheric pollution
• SDSSJ084539.17+225728.0: the first DBZ white dwarf with a metal-rich gaseous debris disc
• Spitzer IRAC Observations of White Dwarfs. I. Warm Dust at Metal-Rich Degenerates
• A Trio of Metal-Rich Dust and Gas Disks Found Orbiting Candidate White Dwarfs with K-Band Excess
• The Frequency of Debris Disks at White Dwarfs
• Spitzer Observations of White Dwarfs: the Missing Planetary Debris Around DZ Stars
• X-ray and Infrared Observations of Two Externally-Polluted White Dwarfs
• Scars of Intense Accretion Episodes at Metal-Rich White Dwarfs
• Inner edges of compact debris disks around metal-rich white dwarfs
• Two Extrasolar Asteroids with Low Volatile-Element Mass Fractions
• A Spitzer Space Telescope Study of the Debris Disks around four SDSS White Dwarfs
• The WIRED Survey. IV. New Dust Disks from the McCook & Sion White Dwarf Catalog
• Transient outburst events from tidally disrupted asteroids near white dwarfs
• Detection of Weak Circumstellar Gas around the DAZ White Dwarf WD 1124-293: Evidence for the Accretion of Multiple Asteroids
• Dusty WDs in the $WISE$ All Sky Survey $\cap$ SDSS

Cited by in corpus (44)

• Circumstellar Debris and Pollution at White Dwarf Stars
• The frequency and infrared brightness of circumstellar discs at white dwarfs
• Doppler-imaging of the planetary debris disc at the white dwarf SDSS J122859.93+104032.9
• Detectable close-in planets around white dwarfs through late unpacking
• High-speed photometry of the disintegrating planetesimals at WD1145+017: evidence for rapid dynamical evolution
• Trace hydrogen in helium atmosphere white dwarfs as a possible signature of water accretion
• The frequency of gaseous debris discs around white dwarfs
• Infrared observations of white dwarfs and the implications for the accretion of dusty planetary material
• Multiwavelength Transit Observations of the Candidate Disintegrating Planetesimals Orbiting WD 1145+017
• Spectroscopic Evolution of Disintegrating Planetesimals: Minutes to Months Variability in the Circumstellar Gas Associated with WD 1145+017
• White dwarf pollution by hydrated planetary remnants: Hydrogen and Metals in WD J204713.76-125908.9
• Serendipitous Discovery of Nine White Dwarfs With Gaseous Debris Disks
• Dust Production and Depletion in Evolved Planetary Systems
• White dwarfs with planetary remnants in the era of Gaia I: six emission line systems
• Relentless and Complex Transits from a Planetesimal Debris Disk
• Most white dwarfs with detectable dust discs show infrared variability
• Five New Post-Main-Sequence Debris Disks with Gaseous Emission
• Another one grinds the dust: Variability of the planetary debris disc at the white dwarf SDSS J104341.53+085558.2
• The dust never settles: collisional production of gas and dust in evolved planetary systems
• Infrared Variability of Two Dusty White Dwarfs
• Evidence for an Anhydrous Carbonaceous Extrasolar Minor Planet
• The fates of Solar system analogues with one additional distant planet
• Evidence for Gas from a Disintegrating Extrasolar Asteroid
• Magnetism, X-rays, and Accretion Rates in WD 1145+017 and other Polluted White Dwarf Systems
• Linking long-term planetary $N$-body simulations with periodic orbits: application to white dwarf pollution
• The lifetimes of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs
• Understanding the origin of white dwarf atmospheric pollution by dynamical simulations based on detected three-planet systems
• Embedding planetesimals into white dwarf discs from large distances
• Collisions in a gas-rich white dwarf planetary debris disc
• Effects of non-Kozai mutual inclinations on two-planet system stability through all phases of stellar evolution
• Shallow Ultraviolet Transits of WD 1145+017
• Dynamical evolution of two-planet systems and its connection with white dwarf atmospheric pollution
• Near-infrared variability in dusty white dwarfs: tracing the accretion of planetary material
• Survivability of radio-loud planetary cores orbiting white dwarfs
• Transiting Disintegrating Planetary Debris around WD 1145+017
• Multi-wavelength observations of the EUV variable metal-rich white dwarf GD 394
• Disk or Companion: Characterizing Excess Infrared Flux in Seven White Dwarf Systems with Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
• The unstable fate of the planet orbiting the A-star in the HD 131399 triple stellar system
• Velocity-imaging the rapidly precessing planetary disc around the white dwarf HE 1349-2305 using Doppler tomography
• Serendipitous discovery of a dusty disc around WDJ181417.84-735459.83
• The collisional atomic processes of Rydberg alkali atoms in Geo-cosmical plasmas
• White dwarf systems: exoplanets and debris disks
• Planetesimals drifting through dusty and gaseous white dwarf debris discs: Types I, II and III-like migration
• Modeling Circumstellar Gas Emission around a White Dwarf Using Cloudy