A planetesimal orbiting within the debris disc around a white dwarf star

Summary, in English

Many white dwarf stars show signs of having accreted smaller bodies, implying that they may host planetary systems. A small number of these systems contain gaseous debris discs, visible through emission lines. We report a stable 123.4-minute periodic variation in the strength and shape of the Ca II emission line profiles originating from the debris disc around the white dwarf SDSS J122859.93+104032.9. We interpret this short-period signal as the signature of a solid-body planetesimal held together by its internal strength.

• Author: Christopher J. Manser; Boris T. Gänsicke; Siegfried Eggl; Mark Hollands; Paula Izquierdo; Detlev Koester; John D. Landstreet; Wladimir Lyra; Thomas R. Marsh; Farzana Meru; Alexander J. Mustill; Pablo Rodríguez-Gil; Odette Toloza; Dimitri Veras; David J. Wilson; Matthew R. Burleigh; Melvyn B. Davies; Jay Farihi; Nicola Gentile Fusillo; Domitilla de Martino; Steven G. Parsons; Andreas Quirrenbach; Roberto Raddi; Sabine Reffert; Melania Del Santo; Matthias R. Schreiber; Roberto Silvotti; Silvia Toonen; Eva Villaver; Mark Wyatt; Siyi Xu; Simon Portegies Zwart
• Department/s: Lund Observatory - Has been reorganised; eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
• Publishing year: 2019-04-05
• Language: English
• Pages: 66-69
• Publication/Series: Science
• Volume: 364
• Issue: 6435
• Links: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.02163; http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aat5330
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Topic: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
• Keywords: Astronomy; Planetary Sciences; Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• Status: Published
• Project: A unified picture of white dwarf planetary systems; IMPACT: Comets, asteroids and the habitability of planets
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1095-9203