Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 22 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5807, pp. 1908 - 1910
DOI: 10.1126/science.1135033
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

A Gaseous Metal Disk Around a White Dwarf

B. T. Gänsicke,* T. R. Marsh, J. Southworth, A. Rebassa-Mansergas

The destiny of planetary systems through the late evolution of their host stars is very uncertain. We report a metal-rich gas disk around a moderately hot and young white dwarf. A dynamical model of the double-peaked emission lines constrains the outer disk radius to just 1.2 solar radii. The likely origin of the disk is a tidally disrupted asteroid, which has been destabilized from its initial orbit at a distance of more than 1000 solar radii by the interaction with a relatively massive planetesimal object or a planet. The white dwarf mass of 0.77 solar mass implies that planetary systems may form around high-mass stars.

Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: boris.gaensicke{at}warwick.ac.uk

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)