High-speed photometry of the disintegrating planetesimals at WD1145+017: evidence for rapid dynamical evolution

Abstract

We obtained high-speed photometry of the disintegrating planetesimals orbiting the white dwarf WD1145+017, spanning a period of four weeks. The light curves show a dramatic evolution of the system since the first observations obtained about seven months ago. Multiple transit events are detected in every light curve, which have varying durations(~3-12min) and depths (~10-60%). The time-averaged extinction is ~11%, much higher than at the time of the Kepler observations. The shortest-duration transits require that the occulting cloud of debris has a few times the size of the white dwarf, longer events are often resolved into the superposition of several individual transits. The transits evolve on time scales of days, both in shape and in depth, with most of them gradually appearing and disappearing over the course of the observing campaign. Several transits can be tracked across multiple nights, all of them recur on periods of ~4.49h, indicating multiple planetary debris fragments on nearly identical orbits. Identifying the specific origin of these bodies within this planetary system, and the evolution leading to their current orbits remains a challenging problem.

Astrophysical Journal Letters in press

References in corpus (16)

• One or more bound planets per Milky Way star from microlensing observations
• A disintegrating minor planet transiting a white dwarf
• The frequency of planetary debris around young white dwarfs
• A gaseous metal disk around a white dwarf
• Foretellings of Ragnarök: World-engulfing Asymptotic Giants and the Inheritance of White Dwarfs
• Formation of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs I: Tidal disruption of an extremely eccentric asteroid
• The frequency and infrared brightness of circumstellar discs at white dwarfs
• Likely detection of water-rich asteroid debris in a metal-polluted white dwarf
• Detectable close-in planets around white dwarfs through late unpacking
• Doppler-imaging of the planetary debris disc at the white dwarf SDSS J122859.93+104032.9
• Variable Emission from a Gaseous Disc around a Metal-Polluted White Dwarf
• ULTRASPEC: a high-speed imaging photometer on the 2.4-m Thai National Telescope
• The orbital evolution of asteroids, pebbles and planets from giant branch stellar radiation and winds
• The Drop during Less than 300 days of a Dusty White Dwarf's Infrared Luminosity
• Direct evidence for an evolving dust cloud from the exoplanet KIC 12557548 b
• Evidence for Gas from a Disintegrating Extrasolar Asteroid

Cited by in corpus (85)

• Circumstellar Debris and Pollution at White Dwarf Stars
• A planetesimal orbiting within the debris disc around a white dwarf star
• Cool DZ white dwarfs II: Compositions and evolution of old remnant planetary systems
• Unstable low-mass planetary systems as drivers of white dwarf pollution
• Drifting Asteroid Fragments Around WD 1145+017
• I Spy Transits and Pulsations: Empirical Variability in White Dwarfs Using Gaia and the Zwicky Transient Facility
• A White Dwarf with Transiting Circumstellar Material Far Outside the Roche Limit
• Cool DZ white dwarfs I: Identification and spectral analysis
• Planetary engulfment as a trigger for white dwarf pollution
• Full-lifetime simulations of multiple unequal-mass planets across all phases of stellar evolution
• Numerical Simulations of Collisional Cascades at the Roche Limits of White Dwarf Stars
• Explaining the variability of WD 1145+017 with simulations of asteroid tidal disruption
• Does a Differentiated, Carbonate-Rich, Rocky Object Pollute the White Dwarf SDSSJ104341.53+085558.2?
• Infrared observations of white dwarfs and the implications for the accretion of dusty planetary material
• The occurrence of planets and other substellar bodies around white dwarfs using K2
• 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
• WD 1145+017 Photometric Observations During 8 Months of High Activity
• Recurring Planetary Debris Transits and Circumstellar Gas around White Dwarf ZTF J0328$-$1219
• WD 1856 b: a close giant planet around a white dwarf that could have survived a common-envelope phase
• Deposition of steeply infalling debris around white dwarf stars
• Dust Production and Depletion in Evolved Planetary Systems
• Relentless and Complex Transits from a Planetesimal Debris Disk
• A mid-IR interferometric survey with MIDI/VLTI: resolving the second-generation protoplanetary disks around post-AGB binaries
• Most white dwarfs with detectable dust discs show infrared variability
• Gray transits of WD 1145+017 over the visible band
• Evidence for eccentric, precessing gaseous debris in the circumstellar absorption towards WD 1145+017
• Exoplanet recycling in massive white-dwarf debris discs
• Another one grinds the dust: Variability of the planetary debris disc at the white dwarf SDSS J104341.53+085558.2
• Infrared Variability of Two Dusty White Dwarfs
• A dearth of small particles in the transiting material around the white dwarf WD 1145+017
• The fates of Solar system analogues with one additional distant planet
• Modeling of the Variable Circumstellar Absorption Features of WD 1145+017
• Magnetism, X-rays, and Accretion Rates in WD 1145+017 and other Polluted White Dwarf Systems
• Simultaneous infrared and optical observations of the transiting debris cloud around WD 1145+017
• Mass and eccentricity constraints on the planetary debris orbiting the white dwarf WD 1145+017
• Linking long-term planetary $N$-body simulations with periodic orbits: application to white dwarf pollution
• Fast spectrophotometry of WD 1145+017
• The lifetimes of planetary debris discs around white dwarfs
• How Jupiters save or destroy inner Neptunes around evolved stars
• Detections and Constraints on White Dwarf Variability from Time-Series GALEX Observations
• Embedding planetesimals into white dwarf discs from large distances
• WD 1145+017: Optical Activity During 2016-2017 and Limits on the X-Ray Flux
• Binary star influence on post-main-sequence multi-planet stability
• Orbital relaxation and excitation of planets tidally interacting with white dwarfs
• Deep Long Asymmetric Occultation in EPIC 204376071
• Mysterious eclipses in the light-curve of KIC8462852: a possible explanation
• High-eccentricity migration of planetesimals around polluted white dwarfs
• Once in a blue moon: detection of 'bluing' during debris transits in the white dwarf WD1145+017
• Importance of fingering convection for accreting white dwarfs in the framework of full evolutionary calculations: the case of the hydrogen-rich white dwarfs GD133 and G29-38
• A New Generation of Cool White Dwarf Atmosphere Models. III. WD J2356$-$209: Accretion of a Planetesimal with an Unusual Composition
• Magnetic dynamos in white dwarfs -- II. Relating magnetism and pollution
• Shallow Ultraviolet Transits of WD 1145+017
• Dynamical mass and multiplicity constraints on co-orbital bodies around stars
• Magnetospherically-trapped dust and a possible model for the unusual transits at WD 1145+017
• On the role of resonances in polluting white dwarfs by asteroids
• The critical binary star separation for a planetary system origin of white dwarf pollution
• Necroplanetology: Simulating the Tidal Disruption of Differentiated Planetary Material Orbiting WD 1145+017
• White dwarf planetary debris dependence on physical structure distributions within asteroid belts
• Transiting Disintegrating Planetary Debris around WD 1145+017
• Mysterious Dust-emitting Object Orbiting TIC 400799224
• Multi-wavelength observations of the EUV variable metal-rich white dwarf GD 394
• A Large Ground-Based Observing Campaign of the Disintegrating Planet K2-22b
• The unstable fate of the planet orbiting the A-star in the HD 131399 triple stellar system
• WD 1145+017: Alternative models of the atmosphere, dust clouds, and gas rings
• A far-UV survey of three hot, metal-polluted white dwarf stars: WD0455-282, WD0621-376, and WD2211-495
• Asteroid belt survival through stellar evolution: dependence on the stellar mass
• The DECam Minute Cadence Survey II: 49 Variables but No Planetary Transits of a White Dwarf
• Minimum Orbital Periods of H-Rich Bodies
• The DECam Minute Cadence Survey I
• Can tidal evolution lead to close-in planetary bodies around white dwarfs I: Orbital period distribution
• LBT Reveals Large Dust Particles and a High Mass Loss Rate for K2-22 b
• Can scallop-shell stars trap dust in their magnetic fields?
• Recurrent mini-outbursts and a magnetic white dwarf in the symbiotic system FN Sgr
• Can tidal evolution lead to close-in planetary bodies around white dwarfs II: volcanism and transits
• White Dwarf Stars
• Precise determination of stellar parameters of the ZZ Ceti and DAZ white dwarf GD 133 through asteroseismology
• Interstellar Meteors from Tidal Disruption of Rocky Planets on Eccentric Orbits Around M Dwarfs
• Planetesimals drifting through dusty and gaseous white dwarf debris discs: Types I, II and III-like migration
• Origin of Ca II emission around polluted white dwarfs
• MG1-688432: A Peculiar Variable System
• Disruption of exo-asteroids around white dwarfs and the release of dust particles in debris rings in co-orbital motion
• The Search for Planet and Planetesimal Transits of White Dwarfs with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Extrasolar enigmas: from disintegrating exoplanets to exoasteroids
• Atmospheric Signatures of Common Envelope Evolution in White Dwarf Planets