Limits on the Optical Brightness of the Epsilon Eridani Dust Ring

Abstract

The STIS/CCD camera on the {\em Hubble Space Telescope (HST)} was used to take deep optical images near the K2V main-sequence star $\epsilon$ Eridani in an attempt to find an optical counterpart of the dust ring previously imaged by sub-mm observations. Upper limits for the optical brightness of the dust ring are determined and discussed in the context of the scattered starlight expected from plausible dust models. We find that, even if the dust is smoothly distributed in symmetrical rings, the optical surface brightness of the dust, as measured with the {\em HST}/STIS CCD clear aperture at 55 AU from the star, cannot be brighter than about 25 STMAG/"${}^2$. This upper limit excludes some solid grain models for the dust ring that can fit the IR and sub-mm data. Magnitudes and positions for $\approx$59 discrete objects between 12.5" to 58" from $\epsilon$ Eri are reported. Most if not all of these objects are likely to be background stars and galaxies.

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Cited by in corpus (11)

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• A Spitzer/IRAC Search for Substellar Companions of the Debris Disk Star epsilon Eridani
• A Submillimetre Search for Cold Extended Debris Disks in the Beta Pictoris Moving Group
• Detecting a rotation in the epsilon Eridani debris disc
• Coronagraphic Search for Extra-Solar Planets around epsilon Eri and Vega
• On-Sky Demonstration of a Linear Band-limited Mask with Application to Visual Binary Stars
• Hiding Dust Around $\epsilon$ Eridani
• Deepest limits on scattered light emission from the Epsilon Eridani inner debris disk with HST/STIS
• Pushing the Limits of the Coronagraphic Occulters on HST/STIS