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Growing Planets Produce Extreme Dust Signatures

  • Authors: Philip J. Carter, Zoë M. Leinhardt

Philip J. Carter and Zoë M. Leinhardt 2026 The Astrophysical Journal Letters 1007 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 3.

The observed extreme debris disks require planet-mass collisions. Minimum target mass needed to produce observed dust mass. Black lines show scenarios for the collision velocity being a multiple of the mutual escape velocity, while colored lines show scenarios with maximally eccentric colliders at different distances from their host star. Lines are for collisions at 45, with a mass ratio of 0.5, around a 1 M star except where indicated otherwise. Symbols show the minimum target mass calculated from inferred dust masses observed in extreme debris disks for a velocity 5 times the escape velocity (filled) and the maximally eccentric scenario (open). These points assume collisions at 45 with a mass ratio of 0.5. Symbols are also colored according to the observationally derived minimum stellocentric radius of the emission. Stars indicate those systems that show significant variability.

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