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Fomalhaut’s Dusty Debris Belt and Eccentric Planet

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Handbook of Exoplanets

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Abstract

Fomalhaut’s planetary system has been targeted by nearly every major observatory from the ground and from space, engaging the curiosity of observers and theorists alike. Here we briefly review Fomalhaut’s substantial role in the history of debris disk science that ultimately yielded the discovery of a low-mass common proper motion companion called Fomalhaut b (or Dagon). Fomalhaut b is comparable to other extrasolar planets known to have highly eccentric orbits, but it is currently unique among directly imaged planets in that it has only been detected in the optical and only with the Hubble Space Telescope. Its existence has been replicated by three independent studies of the same Hubble data, and its puzzling observational properties remain to be fully explained. The most plausible scenario is that 10–100 Myr-old exoplanets directly imaged many AU from their host star have very large Hill radii, which means that sub-Jupiter mass planets can be discovered via light scattering off sufficiently large and dusty rings and/or shrouds replenished by the collisional erosion of satellites.

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Acknowledgments

The author acknowledges support from NASA NNX15AC89G and NNX15AD95G/NEXSS, NSF AST-1518332, and HST-GO-13726. This work benefited from NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Paul G. Kalas

  2. SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA

    Paul G. Kalas

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  1. Paul G. Kalas
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Correspondence to Paul G. Kalas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias , La Laguna, Spain

    Hans J. Deeg

  2. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain

    Juan Antonio Belmonte

Section Editor information

  1. Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Porto, Portugal

    Pedro Figueira

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Kalas, P.G. (2018). Fomalhaut’s Dusty Debris Belt and Eccentric Planet. In: Deeg, H., Belmonte, J. (eds) Handbook of Exoplanets . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_38-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_38-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30648-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30648-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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