HD 53143 is a one-billion-year-old solar-type star located 59.8 light-years away in the constellation of Carina.
This composite image shows the HD 53143 star system. Shown in orange/red, millimeter-wavelength data from ALMA, reveal a previously unobserved eccentric debris disk orbiting HD 53143 in the form of an ellipse. An unresolved dot shows the star off-center near the southern foci of the disk, while a second unresolved dot to the north indicates the potential presence of a planet. Optical data from Hubble’s ACS camera is shown in blue and white; a coronagraphic mask blocks out the starlight, allowing astronomers to see what’s happening in the region surrounding HD 53143. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. MacGregor, University of Colorado, Boulder / S. Dagnello, NRAO, AUI & NSF.
HD 53143 was first observed in 2006 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The star is surrounded by a debris disk that astronomers previously believed to be a face-on ring similar to the debris disk surrounding our Sun, more commonly known as the Kuiper Belt.
The new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) show that HD 53143’s debris disk is actually highly eccentric.
“In ring-shaped debris disks, the star is typically located at or near the center of the disk,” explained University of Colorado, Boulder astronomer Meredith MacGregor and her colleagues.
“But in elliptically-shaped eccentric disks, the star resides at one focus of the ellipse, far away from the disk’s center.”
According to the team, HD 53143 may also be harboring a second disk and at least one exoplanet.
“Until now, scientists had never seen a debris disk with such a complicated structure,” Dr. MacGregor said.
“In addition to being an ellipse with a star at one focus, it also likely has a second inner disk that is misaligned or tilted relative to the outer disk.”
“In order to produce this structure, there must be a planet or planets in the system that are gravitationally perturbing the material in the disk.”
This level of eccentricity makes HD 53143 the most eccentric debris disk observed to date, being twice as eccentric as the debris disk around Fomalhaut.
An artist’s impression of HD 53143 and its highly eccentric debris disk. The star and a second inner disk are shown near the southern foci of the elliptical debris disk. A planet, which scientists assume is shaping the disk through gravitational force, is shown to the north. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Weiss, NRAO, AUI & NSF.
“So far, we have not found many disks with a significant eccentricity,” Dr. MacGregor said.
“In general, we don’t expect disks to be very eccentric unless something, like a planet, is sculpting them and forcing them to be eccentric.”
“Without that force, orbits tend to circularize, like what we see in our own Solar System.”
“Importantly, debris disks aren’t just collections of dust and rocks in space,” she added.
“They are a historical record of planetary formation and how planetary systems evolve over time and provide a peek into their futures.”
A paper on the findings will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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Meredith A. MacGregor et al. 2022. ALMA Images the Eccentric HD 53143 Debris Disk. ApJL, in press; arXiv: 2206.05856
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